Folie Over Belief: A Story about Fall Out Boy
by stargleek27
Summary: A story about the two best female spies from the south who find love while on one of the biggest missions of their career
1. Chapter 1

**Folie Over Belief**

_A story about the two best female spies from the south who find love while on one of the biggest missions of their career_

**Prologue**

Normally when you're 19 you'd expect to see yourself working at college, a part-time job under your collar to keep up with the student loans, weekly shopping and to help fix that wall you broke at your neighbour's drunken party that you don't seem to remember. Your life follows the same routine you can remember by heart now: get up late, wash, dress, bolt down a hurried breakfast of a piece of burnt toast, grab half the wrong books, run straight past the room you should be in and then spend the rest of the morning trying to wake yourself up. Meeting your friends for the hour of freedom every lunchtime is one of the highlights of the long day. Now you can chat and forget about that big essay you need to finish by tomorrow. And when the day is finished, you roll wearily into bed, setting the alarm early even though you won't wake up to it, and fall into a deep sleep just like every other day.

O.K. That might be you at college, you could be brilliant there, you could wake up in time. But for some people that isn't the case. Some days it could be. Other days they might be rescuing an important official from a special government. Oh yeah these people exist. You mean you don't have people like that at your college? Well, read on anyway and you'll find out just who are normal people leading happy, normal lives. And those that are secret under-cover agents. This story is about two particular female (yeah alright lads, simmer down!) spies who lead these sort-of lives, full of danger, suspense and homework. And this story is about the most dangerous, exciting and best mission of their entire career. Don't believe me? Well see for yourself…

**Chapter 1**

There was a loud knock at the door. Inside the dark room, two single beds occupied half the room. In these beds slept two figures. There came another longer and louder knock on the wooden door again and one of the figures twitched and groaned.

"CLAIRE! JULIA!"

A muffled yell travelled through the thick door.

"YOU'D BETTER BE UP IN THE NEXT TEN MINUTES, 'CAUSE IF YOU'RE NOT, HUDGENS IS GONNA BE SO CHEESED OFF WITH YOU GUYS!"

The sound of footsteps walking away was the last thing the two 'Sleeping Beauties' heard. The first girl rolled over, sat up and stepped out of bed reluctantly, swaying slightly from weariness. The second, on the other hand, curled up even tighter under her duvet, and it wasn't till her roommate yanked the covers back did she eventually roll right out of bed onto her knees. The usual routine of their mornings. The girl crawled round to the wardrobe whilst the other drew back the curtains. Light streamed through and they both yelped.

"Close it, close it!" the one on the floor screeched. She ignored her friend's whimpers and drew them back further, although wincing slightly at the brightness.

The first girl was Claire Ebony, the younger of the two but only by a few days. She was quite short at around 5'4", with thick, dark brown, straight hair that reached down past her shoulders. Even though she was small, she had a slim figure. Her eyes were a sapphire blue and she had a big, cheerful smile that got everyone else grinning too.

The second struggled to her feet and swayed slightly due to head-rush. Claire giggled and turned back to her desk. The second of the two was Julia Skart, the elder one. But only by a few days. She was a lot taller than Claire and stood at 5'8". Her almost-straight hair was a darker shade of brown with dark purple highlights under the fringe and all over her layers, and her hair had grown to half-way down her back. She had a slim build too, dark green eyes and her smile, like Claire's, could grab the attention of anyone present, but it was a cheeky grin hiding a mischievous plot she had just concocted off the top of her head. Both were funny, intelligent, witty and popular girls and a hit with students and teachers alike at their University.

Unfortunately they had to frequently cancel plans of socialising with their friends due to one reason: they were secret, under-cover spies working for a multi-million pound secret organisation that dealt in cases more severe than the FBI or CIA. Picture, if you will, James Bond in a top-secret mission. Now picture two female James Bond's in the same mission, but prettier. They tended to specialise in kidnapping/rescue missions, but now and again they were put on a stop-the-bad-guy-take-out-the-villains mission. They didn't mind these particularly difficult missions. The pay was good, they were doing their bit for the country and they were getting fresh air. The slight flaws of their job were they weren't allowed to go out with their friends as much as everyone else. What with the pressure of Uni. work, having to work on a different scenario at least once a week or sometimes twice a week, and the pressure of being invited to parties but not being able to drink too much so as to keep a clear head, they weren't happy all year round to be working in such an exciting job. Also, as part of their under-cover work, they had to work in a part-time job so as to fit in with everyone else, so their schedules were tight and sometimes they felt like rebelling big time.

Claire took out some fresh clothes from their wardrobe and went to their small, fancy bathroom they had connected to their dormitory, thanks to anonymous funding from their organisation. Ten minutes later and Claire returned from the bathroom fully-clothed in dark blue skinny jeans, blue, patterned Converse trainers, a stripy black and red top and a black jacket with a small logo in the top-right corner: a small, red bat with a black love heart in the centre. Julia jumped past her, literally. Jumping was the only thing she knew that woke her up properly and refrained her from falling asleep again. Claire sat down at their small dresser and started applying eyeliner to her face. Not on her face as in everywhere obviously, on her eyes. In the reflection of the mirror, lots of posters, drawings and photos covered the walls and stared back at her lifelessly. Fifteen minutes later and Julia came hopping out again in black skinnies, black, patterned Converses, and a plain dark-red hoodie, concealing the black band t-shirt she had on underneath. Claire looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.

"You're still not properly awake?" she questioned with a tone that showed her disbelief. Julia stared back.

"No, I kicked the sink again," she answered wearily and limped along to her bed.

Claire opened her mouth but didn't say anything, instead tried to hide the smile that always appeared when her friend had done something stupid and predictable but oh so funny. After dumping her pyjamas on her unmade bed, Julia walked awkwardly over to where Claire sat and nudged her slightly. Claire sighed, finished applying her make-up and got up with a flourish. Julia sat down heavily and began straight away with the black kohl eyeliner. Their daily routine compared to everyone else's in the building. After they were finished making their selves look good, they did a quick sweep of their quite untidy room, shrugged and snatched their bags from the back of the chair.

Once their dormitory door was firmly shut, they glanced round at the last few stragglers making their way to class. Claire dragged out her timetable from the depths of her shoulder-bag and searched over it to Friday.

"We're in Lecture Room 13 for role call first off," she read back to Julia who stood patiently listening.

"You do know 13 is an unlucky number?" she questioned as they started making their way down to their destination. "In fact Friday is an unlucky day too."

"And did you know you are REALLY superstitious?" Claire answered back sarcastically.

"Hey, have you ever seen _Friday the 13__th_? Any of them?" Julia said indignantly, stopping in her tracks and pointing a finger at Claire.

"Not all the way through," she admitted, shrugging slightly.

"Well when you see every single one, you come back to me and tell me you don't get paranoid some crazy guy's just gonna come round in a hockey mask and try to kill you. Although, saying that, we pretty much go through that sort of thing every w—"

She was cut short as Claire waved a hand at her impatiently. It was a necessity that no-one else knew of their secret identities. If word got round, they'd have to resign from their post at once, no questions asked.

When she was satisfied that she wouldn't say anything else, Claire rolled her eyes and continued walking swiftly to Lecture Room 13. Julia put her hands out in a questioning manner and jogged after her. They reached the Lecture Room just as the Professor began calling out names. They made their way sheepishly to their desks situated halfway between the door and the small stage from which lessons were taught.

"Claire Ebony?" the Professor called out, looking around for her familiar face.

She raised a hand and he continued ticking off students.

"Julia Skart?" he said loudly. There was no answer.

"Julia Skart?" he called again, looking round with a look that showed he was used to this.

Claire raised an eyebrow and turned to her friend to find her staring up at the ceiling, a glazed look in her eyes and with a small smile on her face. Claire rolled her eyes as the Professor sighed irritably.

"Is she still asleep?" he asked the large class, both bushy, grey eyebrows crossed in frustration. "Has anyone seen her this morning? Can someone please just go and wake her up." He waved a hand, motioning for someone to go to Claire and Julia's room.

"She's here Sir," Claire sighed, prodding Julia sharply with her elbow to bring her back to reality. She jumped, blinked and stared round whilst everyone groaned and giggled. She grinned with embarrassment as the Professor ticked off her name.

"As ever, you're either asleep or day-dreaming," he said with a serious look on his face.

Julia shrugged her shoulders as Claire suppressed a giggle…


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"O.K, so I'll see you after lesson one right?" Claire asked Julia before they went opposite ways down the long corridor outside Lecture Room 13.

"Yep, sure dude, I'll see you in two hours time," she replied with a grin, high-fiving her friend. They turned in opposite directions and departed to their next lessons.

"So you excited Claire?" a girl with long blonde, wavy hair asked her day-dreaming friend.

Claire blinked.

"Excited for what Stacy?" Claire answered back, a bemused look on her face.

"Because, you and Julia are having your party tonight aren't you?" Stacy replied slowly, returning a blink of disbelief at her friend's lack of memory.

Claire's mouth formed an 'o' as she remembered. Recently, Claire and Julia had got together and discussed ways of celebrating their birthdays and had come to the conclusion of sharing a party with all their friends. Julia's birthday had been and gone two days ago and it was now the 25th of October, exactly in between the two birthdays. They had arranged the party for that night out at a local, popular night club with all their friends, even those they hadn't seen since secondary school. The party would go on from 8 'til 11 before moving on from the nightclub to a nearby friend's house where it would go on for however long. It was supposed to be the party of the year at Claudstine University, with over 50 people going, outside and inside the University. Everyone had agreed it was going to be a great night and were planning to give their presents to the two on the day. Both had been very impatient because they was curious as to what their friends had got them, they couldn't wait to see their old friends again and (Julia especially) couldn't wait to go out for the night and drink with their friends.

Claire nodded enthusiastically at Stacy and clicked the capture button on her camera by accident. The shutter went off with a snap and they jumped and squeaked.

"The point of Photography is to NOT be afraid of cameras," the teacher called sarcastically from the other side of the room.

They both covered their mouths to smother their giggling and went outside to take pictures for their assignment in Photography.

"Hey Julia, you excited?" a small, dark-haired girl questioned Julia who at that moment was on her hands and knees under a table for some strange reason.

"Err, sure why not," Julia's muffled yell came floating out from under the wooden table.

As she came back up, she banged the top of her head on the bottom of the table and swore loudly.

"JULIA!"

Julia's guilty face rose over the table to stare at the Art Professor's stern face.

"Won't happen again Miss…" she mumbled.

The teacher nodded her head and turned to talk to another student. Julia burrowed under the table again before she found the red chalk pastel she had dropped.

"What d'ya mean 'sure why not'?" the girl asked her daft friend.

"Weeeeell…why should I be excited? Is Jimmy Grover leaving? Please, I beg of you, tell me he is, Kirsty," Julia pleaded.

Kirsty giggled and struggled to maintain a straight face.

"Oh no reason…except it's yours and Claire's party tonight?"

Julia's face stayed blank and confused. Kirsty sighed and waited for her to remember this infamous party. Julia suddenly shouted out 'OH!'

"We get there in the end," Kirsty sighed in a comical way.

Julia grinned, nodded in answer to the question of her excitement and began hunting for the red chalk pastel she had just dropped yet again.

"So how much drink d'ya reckon we should have there?" Claire questioned whilst poring over a magazine, where a band of four stared up at her and held their instruments. There was no answer. She raised her head and turned slightly to see what had happened to Julia. She hadn't left their dormitory; she was lying on her bed facing the ceiling, eyes closed. A black Stratocaster electric guitar leant against the side of the bed; it was one of the six instruments that clogged up one corner of the room. A keyboard for Claire stood against the wall surrounded by her electric and acoustic guitars and Julia's other electric and acoustic guitar.

Claire stood up and shuffled over to her apparently deaf friend.

"Julia?"

"_I…don't…care what ya think, as long as it's abo-o-out me-e-e!_" she sang suddenly, singing along to the iPod that was clutched in her hand, the earphones throwing music in her head at full blast. Claire twisted round quickly and covered her mouth to muffle her laughing. Turning round again, she stood over Julia waiting for her to open her eyes. Sensing something was happening, Julia's eyes snapped open, only to see a dark shadow leering over her. She squealed, jumped and rolled off the bed in the space of two seconds. _Then_ Claire laughed out loud. Julia's furious face appeared from behind the bed and glared at Claire. She burst into laughter again at her friend's funny misfortune.

"That…wasn't…funny," Julia muttered angrily through gritted teeth.

Claire muffled her laughter again and nodded to say 'it so was'.

"Was there a reason as to why you gave me a heart attack?" Julia mumbled in an annoyed tone, climbing back onto her bed and un-tangling her earphones.

"Yeah, I was just wondering how much drink we should have there?" Claire repeated.

Julia debated for a minute.

"Meh…I'll sort that side of things dude. Plus, people are bringing their own alcohol anywhoosiers," she replied.

"Right…it's gonna be like your 16th isn't it?" Claire wondered aloud.

"Could be worse. Remember my 18th? I couldn't move for about two days and after that it still felt like my head was imploding."

They both reminisced about their experiences at these two parties.

"Good times, good times," Julia mumbled with a small grin on her face. She rolled off the bed again and went to the desk to grab her keys and wallet. She stared at the picture of the band and grinned at Claire.

"_Love's Labour's Lost_ as ze French say. I'll be back in about half an hour dude. Don't get too close to that picture, you'll get an imprint on your face…unless that's what you want of course," she said in a jokey voice walking out the door, just avoiding the cushion Claire threw at her.

The party was in full swing. The music was going full-blast, everyone was having a good time and every time Claire or Julia saw a friend, they would be greeted with loud calls of 'Happy Birthday!' or 'This party is amazing!' or 'Oh God, this is my LAST drink!' Julia and Claire were having the time of their lives and there was a great big grin on both their faces. An hour into the party (or as Julia liked to refer it to as 'ze partay') and the two of them were so excited and happy to have a night off. Now half an hour later and they were wishing it would never end. They had even received a present from 'X' and another from 'Dragon', two colleague's code names. As they were going round they both thought at exactly the same time 'this beats a deadly mission anytime!' As soon as they'd thought that, Julia's mobile vibrated in the pocket of her new blue, skater jeans. As she pulled it out, there was the distant sound of her ringtone. Staring at the caller's name, she pulled a face and refrained from groaning. She waved a hand and motioned for Claire to join her. Claire (with difficulty) swerved in between friends and reached her room mate who was standing with an irritated expression on her face. Holding the phone out so Claire could read the screen, she nodded as Claire mimed strangling herself.

Checking that no-one was looking, they walked causally and calmly to the bathroom. Once in, they checked once more there was no-one in here to eaves-drop on their conversation. Julia pressed the button to accept the call and went to press 'speakerphone' when a tinny, quiet voice yelled out 'NO!' Julia blinked and Claire mouthed 'what?' Shrugging her shoulders, Julia put the phone to her ear and listened to the caller.

"Yep…mhm…uh huh…oh a _mission_? Oh yeah, 'cause we've never been on one of those have we Claire?" she answered back sarcastically.

"Oh no, of course not Julia," Claire replied, raising her voice.

"Oh hang on, I think maybe once…"

"Or twice…"

"Ten times?"

"A million maybe?"

"_Alright!_" came the tinny voice again.

"Aaaand, you expect us to do another mission? It's our freakin' birthday party man! You can't expect us to just leave everyone here, seriously? Get 'Rayman' and 'Lepher' to do it, they never do their missions," she argued in a mono-tone. She sighed and listened to their Supervisor rant on about their duties and about what the mission was about. Putting two fingers together beside her head, she mimed pulling the trigger of a gun, moved her hand to the other side and mimed her head exploding. Claire giggled and tried to muffle it. Julia grinned at her but suddenly her eyes widened and her eyebrows furrowed. Claire's eyebrow rose and she mouthed 'what?' again. Julia didn't say anything but her face changed expression and looked shocked. Claire waited impatiently, wanting to know whether they'd be doing the mission or not. She hoped not; she wanted to get back to the party and she knew Julia had the knack of talking people out of things. She had aced her negotiation exam when training.

"Right…erm, we…we'll take it, sure," she finally answered.

Claire held out her hands in shock, horror and irritation. Julia clicked 'end call' and stood staring at the floor, apparently in her own little world.

"Julia! What…the…hell?" Claire began, but was silenced by the strange look on her friend's face.

"Errr…you…umm…"

"Why do you suddenly have a problem speaking, usually it takes ages to shut you up," Claire joked. Julia didn't laugh, instead bit her lip.

"Claire…" she started again. She forced a smile that covered up her real major anxiety now and what apparently was excitement. Claire had aced her exam on reading people's expressions. She motioned for Julia to carry on.

"Well…you know when we were, what 15 or so, how we had a major thing about Fall Out Boy?"

Claire nodded in surprise as she pictured her favourite-of-all-time band.

"You also remember how we still have a thing about them?"

Nod.  
"Remember we went to like 7 gigs or something? And how we'd always wanted to meet them?"  
Nod.

She took a deep breath.

"How would you like to rescue them on a kidnap mission?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

There was a deadly silence. Even the sounds of the party had seemed to melt away into nothing. Claire stared, eyes widening and mouth opening more as each second passed. She gasped.

"Yo-…you're…you've gotta…no wa-…how…oh God I can't breathe."

She leant against the sink as Julia stood next to her in a position to catch her if she fell. For a few minutes neither of them said anything and waited for their hearts to slow down from the sudden news. Claire finally swallowed the lump in her throat and stared at Julia.

"S-s-so…F-Fall Out Boy…the rock b-band…has been…kidnapped?" she stuttered insanely. "A-a-and we have to…rescue them?"

Julia nodded slowly as if in a dream.

"This has to be a dream," she commented slowly.

"More like a nightmare if they've been kidnapped…" Claire responded quietly.

The both of them leant against the cold sinks, waiting for the news to finally seem real and the sounds of the real world to return. Some friends suddenly came barging in, laughing loudly and hysterically, making Julia and Claire jump forward and nearly punch them. The friends stared at them happily.

"Hey guys! Er…are you both O.K? You're both white like you've seen a ghost or something," one piped up.

Claire chanced a nervous glance at Julia who quickly smiled realistically and giggled.

"No, you guys just scared the hell out of us! Crikey Moses, Alex I haven't seen you this drunk since my 16th! Just keep away from Tom won't you?"

They all laughed, even Claire, as Alex whipped out a small hairbrush from her purse and threw it at her. Julia ducked and burst out laughing.

"Definitely smashed," she remarked knowingly, nodding her head. "You couldn't hit the sea if you fell out of a boat!"

Alex laughed and they started throwing childish insults at each other, before they all went back into the main dance area. Julia swapped a glance with Claire. A look that said what they were both thinking: 'Just when we thought our lives couldn't get more complicated…'

"Soooo…basically…what you're trying to tell us, is some evil guys have kidnapped all four members of Fall Out Boy, they're holding them ransom, and they have an even bigger reason for kidnapping them that we're not sure about? We have only one idea where they could be – this being America with, remind me, 52 huge states right? – no idea who the bad guys are, _**you **_guys don't even know who Fall Out Boy are, have never heard their songs, and we don't know the full condition of the situation. The guys in America called on us and we don't know why that is either. The theory is that they know about us and think we're the best ones for the job. They have heard of CIA right? 'Cos last time I checked they were in _**America**_. And finally, you want me and Julia to travel all the way to the USA, find the guys, rescue them and try to get the bad guys too. And if we don't get the bad guys then we have to keep looking for them and make sure Fall Out Boy don't go getting captured again, and there is actually the incredibly likely possibility that those guys are going to kill us and Fall Out Boy if they escape. In fact, we're going to be killed if we even try setting one foot within their area. This is what you're telling us?"

The tall man stared at Claire uncomfortably, trying to avoid her piercing, sceptic glare. It was the day after the party and even though they'd had a good time last night, Claire and Julia were not particularly happy to be at work straight away. Reluctantly, they had come into the tall, 30-storey building, where in the basement their REAL top-secret agency worked – the building was just a ploy to make people believe it was a big office building. The only way into the actual organisation was to type in the 7 digit code once in a specific elevator with an 'Out Of Order' sign on the double doors. If you typed in the wrong code or tried to force your way in, the organisation would lock down securely and a special team of experienced guards (like SWAT) would come out a secret exit of the agency. The two girls went down the familiar elevator, talking comfortably to each other, only to have been met by a nervous, fellow employee, that didn't deal in the missions personally, but handed them out with details. The two had then been led by the twitchy worker along a long corridor past different cubicles where other employees sat at state-of-the-art computers and typed in complicated figures or spoke into ear-mouth pieces. Near the end of the corridor, doors appeared; these led into the interrogation or briefing rooms used by the numerous agents in the secret government. Now here they were discussing the mission given and what was to be done. Julia clapped her hands together.

"Perfick."

Claire turned her head slowly and stared at her in bemusement.

"Well I think it's a good idea. I mean you know how we're always up for a challenge. Here's a challenge: rescue yours, and one of my, most favourite rock bands, a band that pretty much half the population (I'm guessing here) knows and adores. They've been taken by a bunch of low-life bad guys who probably never had a girlfriend and now have nothing better to do in their pathetic lives than to make plans to kidnap people. All we've gotta do, is break in, bust out, beat up, and then babysit. And if that isn't good alliteration, I don't know what is!"

"What is it with you and alliteration," Claire asked quietly with a small grin.

Julia shrugged and leant back, placing her arms behind her head.

"Meh, I think it's coolios. But hey, I'm a nerd, give me a break!"

Claire muffled her laughter and turned back to their fellow agent, who stood nervously shuffling from side to side waiting for the answer. Claire rolled her eyes.

"Course we'll take it, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she answered with a mock-sigh. Julia whooped behind her and punched the air with her fist.

The agent nodded in relief and hurried out of the small interrogation room, with the two girls behind him. As the three walked past the different cubicles, colleagues swivelled round on their chairs to stare at them. The two nodded in answer to the question everybody wanted to ask: were they going to take the job?

As they nodded, their colleagues applauded them and whooped. Julia put her left arm over Claire's shoulder and grinned.

"We're going to America dude!"

Claire burst out laughing as Julia pretended to contemplate the matter, head facing the right wall to them, a look of wonder on her face.

"Should I pack trousers, shorts, or spyware...make it jeans!" she wondered aloud in humour. "C'mon buddy, let's go pack for our destination of the United States of America!" she finished in a BAD American accent.

"Julia, that was terrible!" Claire giggled hysterically.

"_New York, New Yoooooooooork!_' they both sang simultaneously, kneeling on the floor and waving their hands in a jazzy way.

"…_your flight goes off at 5:35pm, so be at the airport in the next hour or so."_

"It's only just gone three!" Julia yelled at the speakerphone from under her dormitory bed. "Why the hell do we need to get there early?"

"_Because you just do Julia. And can you hurry up finding whatever it is you've lost; I can't hear your muffled voice from under the bed."_

Cursing under her breath, she crawled backward, hitting her head on the wooden frame of the bed, and straightened up. Claire came out of the bathroom with a toothbrush in her mouth and a small bag of make-up in tow. Julia questioned her with a look, only to be met by a weary shrug.

"_Now listen. This is a very important mission, this must go smoothly, with no-one knowing who you girls are. If word got out, the kidnappers would be after you and then where would we be? Now I know I shouldn't say this, but you two are my best agents. We have 110% out of you two _("150% more like…" Claire mumbled) _you complete your missions to excellent standards, you've both mastered your training and skills levels. You're the best we've seen and I'm not afraid to admit it. I know this mission won't go wrong with you two at the front sorting it out, but I just need to make sure that you girls have it clear that this is an important factor to your career. And Julia, if you want to continue with the mission I suggest you stop opening and closing your hand, in the impression that I talk too much." _

Julia lowered her hand and grinned at Claire.

"Yep Boss, we're on it," Claire answered seriously, rolling her eyes.

"_Good. And Claire? Please don't let me bore you into rolling your eyes."_

The phone cut off as the two smiled, eyebrows raised.

"How does he do that I wanna know…" Claire questioned whilst packing her suitcase.

"Well, it's not as if he goes out it seems, so he probably practises all this kung fu stuff or Jedi mind tricks on his own so he's prepared for conversations like that. You never see him do ya?" Julia yelled from the bathroom over the sound of the tap. "AHH! Hot hot hot!"

She came back out nursing her fingers and muttering 'ouch' at every step.

"Despite us being his favourite agents, we've never actually met the guy have we? Probably doesn't want to meet two crazy people, but what cha gonna do?"

"Well," Claire finally answered, slamming her case shut. "I dunno what we're gonna do about him, but I know that we're ready to go."

Julia nodded, slammed her untidy case shut and locked it securely. Both put their shoulder bags over their heads and took a quick look around the warm, cosy and welcoming dormitory they had grown to love.

Sweeping the room with a sad gaze they sighed and back out of the room. Everyone on campus was out for the evening hour before going back in, so the corridor was pretty clear. Once out, they locked their door and hurried through the hall to the double doors. Running down two flights of stairs was their next move before jumping out of the ground floor door and approaching a large window that was a few feet above the grassy area outside the main entrance to the University. They opened it cautiously and threw their suitcases and bags down before clambering out their selves. Once standing up again, they looked round to make sure the coast was clear before making their way to the car park, running through the few shadows of the building. Seeing as it was autumn, the sun had nearly set so they were doing pretty well. As they wandered through the car park, a low whistle made them stop in their tracks and look around, to find a young man motioning them over to a black, sleek Mercedes. As they rushed over, he swung open the door and stepped back for them to jump in…literally. Inside, the two of them settled down and high-fived as the guy went to the driver's seat and slid in professionally. The ignition started smoothly, the car started rolling out the car park and the two spies were on their way to America…

"Well, wasn't it eventful coming an hour and a half early for a plane that went on time without any hassle?" Julia asked sarcastically whilst plugging her earphones in her black iPod Nano Chromatic.

"I was actually surprised that it went on time," Claire responded in surprise.

The large plane they were sitting on had taken off ten minutes ago and they were still ascending into the brilliant, light-blue sky, now and again flying through beautifully-white, soft clouds. The forecast had been good, the flight time would be reduced because of the good weather patterns, and the two girls had good seats in Business class, next to a window. However Claire was rather tense and upset. She kept gripping the chair's arms and biting her nails in anxiety. Julia kept swiping glances at her until ten minutes later, and ten minutes of listening to screamo and metal music and Fall Out Boy, she sighed and pulled the ear phones out of her ears. Leaning across she opened her mouth and tried to think hurriedly of what to say.

"Listen dude," she started off well, "don't stress, O.K. Alright, it is something to worry about, but you're gonna start rocking backwards and forwards singing 'Mary had a little lamb' in a minute if you stress over it anymore. Just relax, chill, MAX OUT, whatever the Yanks say. Look at me…I'm completely at ease even though I'm starting to get paranoid over the thing now. In fact, I'm always 'maxed out' so just sit back, listen to music and think about how we're gonna kick 'ass' when we get there!"

Claire stared at her.

"You've been watching T.V to talk American haven't you?" she commented slowly.

"The lingo is awesome, huh?" Julia replied with a smile.

Claire sank back into her seat with a sigh.

"Maybe you're right," she said quietly, more to herself than Julia, "I'm probably just being paranoid. We'll be in and out of there quick as possible."

She stared out the window as an odd shaped cloud floated past lazily…


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Joe, get up!"

The young man lying on the floor stirred and opened his eyes blearily. Groaning in pain, he struggled into a sitting position, one hand clasped to the side of his head.

"My head is killing me," he mumbled incoherently. He glanced up and did a double-take when he saw three other men around him, one of them leaning over him anxiously. The room was almost in complete darkness save for a small, dim lamp hanging from the ceiling. The tiny, box-room seemed to be made of brick, and apart from the lamp and their selves, a solid metal door was the only other thing in this room. The man blinked at the other three.

They were all quite young, in their 20s. One of them was kneeling on the floor, inspecting the bottom of the metal door for gaps or something else. This man had shoulder-length, wavy brown hair, a small light brown beard and a pair of spectacles sitting crookedly on his nose, but his light brown eyes were still clearly visible. He wore a pair of dark blue jeans, a black t-shirt with the slogan 'Metallica' written across the chest and a black and red striped jacket lay discarded behind him, showing the numerous tattoos crawling up his arms.

The second guy searching the room was stretching up to the ceiling and tapping on the walls, to see if there were loose bricks around those areas. He paused every now and then to brush his black, straight hair out of his eyes. His dark brown eyes were outlined in black eyeliner, but it was smudged now somehow. His t-shirt also bore a slogan, 'Friends Or Enemies. Com', his jeans, once black, had become quite dusty from brushing against the wall, and a black hoodie lay beside him too, a red bat-shaped logo in one corner.

The third who had woken his friend up still wore the same panicky and worried expression as he examined the room from his standing point. He was quite short, with strawberry-blond hair, light-blue eyes behind glasses and, let's say, a cuddly figure. His t-shirt was a soft beige colour and despite the heat, he hugged a denim jacket around him. His right jean leg was ripped and his knee was grazed slightly. He held out a hand for his friend who took it gratefully and was hauled upright.

The guy was taller than all his friends, and his dark-brown hair (unlike the others) was uncontrollable and wild, but it was certainly ruffled like the others. His blue eyes searched round the room, whilst he brushed down his black denim jacket and black jeans. The room was incredibly stuffy and hot. He blew upward at his hair that was hanging over his face and struggled out of his jacket. As he pulled his arm out of the sleeve he yelped, making the others whip round swiftly. The jacket dropped to the dusty floor as they crowded round him. He stooped slightly, whimpering and cradling his arm.

"Jeez, it hurts like hell! What did I do to it?" he questioned. He glanced up.

"What happened? Does anyone know where or how we got here?"

The guy with black hair furrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms.

"Well Joe, we are trapped in a totally secure room in the middle of nowhere. Does that answer one of your questions?" he snapped at him before turning to face the other way and inspect the door again.

"Pete, c'mon man, don't stress out at us," the shorter one broke in before Joe retaliated. "What's the point of arguing, it's not gonna help us."

"He's right Pete, it's not gonna do us any good if we fall out. We have to stick together and this way we can figure out what's going on," said the man with glasses, shuffling his feet nervously.

"Thanks Patrick, thanks Andy," Joe mumbled to them. The ghost of a smile flitted briefly across their faces.

Pete stood still before turning back slowly, his face suddenly sad and his eyes starting to fill with tears, making the others blink in surprise. He swallowed and sat heavily on the floor.

"It's just I keep thinking about Ashlee and Bronx and I don't know if they're safe or not and I don't even know if we're safe!"

He buried his head in his hands as he thought of his wife and child. His friends sank to the floor and put an arm each around him.

There was a sudden clanking sound from the door. The four stood up in a flash, hearts racing. The barrier to their freedom opened slowly and four tall, hefty men marched in menacingly, pushing the four back roughly so their backs faced the wall, some producing Desert Eagles and some springing Uzis out of nowhere and pointing them at their heads, daring them to speak. If they did – kablamo! A fifth man came in after, appearing calmer than his henchmen it seemed. He wasn't a towering giant like his cronies but he was still taller than the four men that were forced against the wall. His eyes were a cold steel-blue colour, almost grey and there was clearly no warmth or sympathy showing for the situation. His clothes looked designer, an obvious sign he wanted to show off about his extensive amount of money. His hair was thick, curly and light brown with a tinge of grey at the roots. Whether this showed his age or perhaps some stress he was under the guys didn't know. He stared in surprise at the four against the wall and smiled slightly in mock sympathy.

"I hope they haven't made you feel uncomfortable. They're quite…harmless really," he drawled in a deep, heavy American accent, with a malicious grin that didn't hide his real glee and smugness in the slightest. The four friends glared at him with loathing. He chuckled slightly at their expressions and started pacing up and down.

"I suppose you're wondering what you're doing here? You've probably done the whole 'who, what, where, when, why, how' questionnaire that seems to bring out the stupidity in people. Well I'll explain to you what's happening to spare you the embarrassment. I won't tell you my name or anything to do with me. I am just the amazing man who organised this all to happen, I am the one that brought you here and I am the one who is running the show…"

"Isn't that basically telling us a bit about you then?" Joe asked irritated. He was answered with a sucker-punch to the stomach by his guard. He gasped and doubled up in agony. Pete moved forward angrily, but was stopped short as his guard wrapped a massive arm round his neck from the back and hauled him backward making him gag. Once satisfied, the Ringleader waited patiently for Joe to straighten up again before continuing.

"If you want to make it to tomorrow, I suggest you keep your mouth shut and do what I tell you," he hissed softly, venom dripping from his low tone. Joe nodded his head and clutched his stomach, his face screwed up in pain.

"As I was saying, obviously you have been kidnapped, and it has all been down to my sheer brilliance. And if you think I'm an evil, conniving man, just remember that I'm holding the cards now. I'm the top-dog now; your views are worth nothing to me. The reason why you have been kidnapped? For a ransom of course; that story never gets old apparently and works every time, as long as you use your mind. This is why people have failed before whereas I shall succeed brilliantly. There is a bigger reason for taking you, but…you will not know this reason. I am not afraid of you escaping, it is impossible. But how can I know you won't try something funny when my back is turned for a second?

"I know everything there is to know about each of you, things you probably didn't know yourself. So it would be wise to follow the rules here. If you do, you may just survive a little longer under my supervision," he finished with a malevolent smirk. He nodded his head, spun round and started out the door, followed by his guards who walked backwards so as to make sure the prisoners didn't try anything. Once out, the door shut swiftly with a loud, metallic 'CLANG' and then there was silence in the tiny room.

The four friends looked at each other in horror before sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. Andy grinned sadly.

"I guess we won't be going to that show next Tuesday, huh?" he joked feebly. "Fall Out Boy's pretty much finished," he paused and swallowed a lump of fear in his throat. "Same as us…"

"O.K, seriously, they need to move Europe closer to America," Julia grumbled with a yawn. "I've been on long flights, short flights, slow flights, bumpy flights; I've been skydiving, charted a plane to some country. But never, in all my life, would I find myself wanting to jump out of a plane. That was the longest I've ever been in the air." She blinked, groaned and slapped a hand to her forehead. "And we have to do it AGAIN soon! Flaming liberties…"

Claire yawned and sipped her coffee, not really taking in what Julia was saying. They were sitting outside a Starbucks in the small airport, their luggage piled around them. It had taken a while to find every bag but they had eventually found themselves with every bag in tow and now drinking coffee to wake their selves up again. Well, Claire was taking it slow and having only one cup to start her off. Julia on the other hand had already demolished four cups and was still yawning. She was now on her fifth, she was slumped over their table, but her foot kept twitching which showed promising signs that the caffeine was beginning to work its magic. Her whole leg suddenly lurched out and kicked Claire. She squeaked in surprise and covered her mouth as many tourists and Americans stared at her in alarm, shifting away from her slightly trying to be inconspicuous. She glared at Julia but had to refrain from laughing instead. Julia had fallen asleep again.

"And if you look to the right ladies and gentlemen," Julia hissed, keeping up a running commentary as the bus they were sitting on trundled down a large street in California, the bright, boiling sun reflecting off numerous shining cars. "You will see a Starbucks where many people are waking up to the rich scent of coffee. Aaaaaaand if you look to the left, you will see another Starbucks. Oh, and guess what? In about one, two, three there's ANOTHER Starbucks!"

"Julia shut up!" Claire giggled nervously as an American guy in a pristine suit glared at Julia and sniffed disapprovingly. Julia grinned back cheekily and waved to the 'cheery' chap. His eyes crossed and eyebrows furrowed as he walked down the bus to a seat at the far end. There was a muffled snort of laughter making the two girls glance round slowly. There was a small group of five teenage boys around 15 or 16 who were laughing at them.

"What's with the accents ladies?" one boy questioned to them in mock-surprise.

"What's with yours?" Claire retaliated swiftly.

All five boys blinked as Julia stared out the window to avoid laughing at their expressions.

"Well our accents are normal if you think about it," the boy replied slowly in an American accent of course. "You're obviously not from round here, you just sound so…we-…..well…posh to be honest."

Julia whipped round with an expression of horror and annoyance on her face.

"Posh? Jeez Louise, that's how EVERY American thinks we sound, isn't it? If not that then everyone back home has a Cockney accent apparently!" she argued back raising her voice slightly.

"Hey, don't stress man!" a younger boy from the group piped up in a high-pitched voice. "You're the ones who seem to have a problem with us and our –"

"When did we say we had a problem with you OR your accents?" Claire interrupted angrily.

The first guy who had asked the question leant forward with raised hands, symbolising 'peace'.

"O.K, let's all calm down," he spoke calmly. Claire blinked and was astonished and embarrassed to see she was halfway out of her chair ready to confront them. She sat back down slowly as Julia unfurled her clenched fists, surprised to see they were curled tightly into lethal fists.

"We didn't mean to upset you gals," the sensible boy apologised politely. "We totally got off on the wrong foot. Look, my name's Jake. This is Harvey, Pharell, Luke and Nick," he gestured each of his friends in turn as he poured out names. "So what are your names? And where you from?"

Claire tapped Julia's right hand twice in the 'Morse code' they had made their selves so that no-one but themselves understood. Two short taps was a way of saying 'fake names'. Julia tapped back on her left hand just as discreetly 'no duh'.

"I'm Kate and this is Tasha," Claire answered smoothly, "and we were both born in East-England but now live in Wales."

Julia smiled convincingly and the boys smiled back warmly.

"So what brings you to America? The shops or the guys?" Jake asked with a cheeky grin whilst the others started flexing their muscles.

Claire and Julia stared at each other before bursting into laughter.

"Oh yeah, you wish lads," Julia gasped.

"O.K, but seriously what brings you all the way over to here?" he repeated.

"Just to visit some friends of ours is all; we haven't seen them for a long time," Claire answered with a shrug.

'Dang we're good at acting!' Julia thought to herself with a sheepish grin.

"Well, hope you have fun here, maybe we'll meet up again," Jake said slowly and warmly.

Julia and Claire exchanged friendly but sad smiles with him; they would never meet him again most probably. The bus' brakes suddenly squealed and ground the vehicle to a halt. Claire stared out the window and nudged Julia with her foot.

"Our stop," she said to the guys as the two of them dragged their bags from the overhead compartments and reached for the handle of their pull-along suitcases. The boys nodded and waved a farewell to them. The girls clambered of the bus and waved at their new friends who they would never see again. The bus pulled away down the street until it turned a corner and was lost from sight.

"Well, that went smoothly," Julia commented as they turned to face the building they had stopped outside: a tall block of flats extending all the way up into the sky. They craned their necks backward to see how far it went and how far they could see to. Julia whistled impressed.

Hitching their bags up they sauntered through the doors with some difficulty and came to a small lobby containing a large oak desk to one side, a flight of stairs leading off to the right of the desk and along a very short corridor two pairs of shining, metal doors to elevators glinted from the reflection of the sun through the lobby's wide windows. As the two girls approached the desk a short man in around his thirties wandered round the desk, smiled at them, sat down comfortably and clapped his hands together. They smiled back at him warmly.

"Hi, we talked earlier on the phone about the vacant, 2-bedroom apartment? And I believe we talked a few days ago organising the accommodation?" Claire began straight away in a highly convincing American accent. "We're under the names 'Lloyd' and 'Pensive'."

The man, who obviously was the landlord, glanced down a long list of names mumbling 'Lloyd' and 'Pensive' to himself as he searched hurriedly for the names. As his brow furrowed, Julia and Claire looked at each other with momentary anxiety before he suddenly looked up with a smile.

"Yes, here we are," he exclaimed in a rather high-pitched voice, "Miss Lloyd, and Miss Pensive," he went on whilst pulling open a drawer in his desk and rummaging through countless keys with number tags attached to them. He snatched two keys, peered at the numbers and slapped them on the desk.

"Here ya go, Misses. Room one-eighteen. If you could just sign here," he continued gesturing to an open, large black book in which a large variety of signatures sprawled across the straight lines of the pages. Hurriedly they both signed their fake names whilst the landlord welcomed them with a friendly greeting, grabbed the keys, collected their bags together with difficulty and shuffled to the elevators where one had just opened magically as if it had been expecting them. Julia raised an eyebrow and chuckled as the answer to the apparently empty lift was solved by two small boys of around eight running swiftly out of the doors talking excitedly.

Shoving the bags in, Claire pressed the button to the fifth floor randomly. The doors shut and the two could talk about what they were already missing about home. When they reached the fifth floor, the doors opened to a tall man in a business suit waiting outside the doors. However he was the one to get a shock as the lift doors disappeared to the side with a whoosh and he came face-to-face with two girls, one who was grinning in amusement and the other who was laughing loudly. As soon as they saw the man's face they burst into hysterical laughter and gasped their apologies as they struggled past with their numerous bags. He hurriedly leapt into the lift and jabbed the button for the ground floor in desperation to get away from the two girls. Claire had made a good guess on the floor number; they walked down the right side of the corridor passing numbers '110' '111' '112' and so on until they halted outside number '118'. Jamming the key in Claire twisted one way and then the other and the door swung inward to a large apartment room.

They clambered through the doorway one after the other and stared round their new temporary home with relief and happiness. The door opened into a tiny hallway that led into the nicely-sized living-room, in which sat a plush red sofa, a black armchair, glass-topped coffee table standing a few feet away from the sofa and on top of a crimson rug that covered some of the beige carpet. Against the opposite wall a wide-screen had been set up, most likely overnight thanks to their agency. The walls were a faded purple which didn't exactly coordinate with the rest of the furniture but Claire and Julia were just thanking their lucky stars that their organisation had set up their furniture before they got there and that it was half-way decent, blending in very well with their wardrobes. Claire walked to the left side of the room where a door was half-open showing their clean, blue and white bathroom. There was a shining new shower and bath tub, and the mirror above the sink had lights shining round the edge.

"Just like a rock star," Claire mumbled half-enthusiastically to herself.

Julia had travelled the other direction to Claire and had gone through a second door in the apartment. This led into a large bedroom where two beds occupied most of the space, a bookshelf and a large chest of drawers. Next to the two single beds stood a small bedside table, a large stylish, pink lamp standing elegantly on top. Julia pulled face and mimed being sick as she noted the pink straight away.

"Stupid 'Rayman'," she sighed in irritation and weariness. "He's gonna get it now," she muttered on as she passed a large wardrobe next to the door and out the cosy room. As she came out Claire started toward her and they turned simultaneously, Claire to her right and Julia to her left, to inspect a small kitchenette that was round the corner from the small hallway, hidden by a wall and slightly cramped into the corner.

"Well this aint so bad, huh?" Julia commented as she slumped onto the sofa and swung her feet up to take the remaining room. Claire pushed Julia's feet in their SpongeBob SquarePants socks off the other half of the sofa and flopped down herself. Julia flicked on the T.V and chucked the remote to Claire whilst leaping up and jogging to the kitchenette. Claire pressed in the numbers for a music channel and sat back as Julia returned moments later, two cans of Coke in tow. She fell backward onto the settee once more and cracked open her can at the same time as Claire.

"They filled up the fridge and cupboards for us. Problem is," she began with a frown, "they've filled up as if we're going to be here for a few months."

She mock-shivered.

"Chilling," Claire muttered sarcastically before taking a sip.

"You wanna be here for a few months?" Julia said critically, daring Claire to answer that question. Claire stared back with a raised eyebrow before turning back to face the T.V where one of their favourite music videos had started playing…


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The phone rang on the lowest music setting possible and Julia snatched it up straight away. Claire carried on unpacking her suitcase and filling a black backpack, glancing every now and then at Julia who nodded as the caller talked to her about details of the band's whereabouts. Eventually she clicked the 'end call' button and tossed the phone onto the sofa before following Claire into the double bedroom.

"The kidnappers called about an hour ago with their demands again and the agency got a signal. It's coming from South California in a warehouse park."

She rolled her eyes.

"Totally original of course," she praised them sarcastically.

"Well we're in South-South-East Cali, so we should be down there in an hour tops," Claire mentally calculated whilst folding a bright green t-shirt neatly and storing it away.

Julia went into the bathroom to change quickly into the black outfits they had ready: black skinny jeans, black shoes (of course with them they had to be black Converses), black tops, black jackets or a hoodie in Julia's case and black beanies even though both girls' hair was dark enough.

"Everything ready dude?" Julia questioned as she unpacked and put away into the drawers the last of her clothes.

"More ready than I'll ever be," Claire exclaimed enthusiastically whilst aiming a pistol at the wall. She pretended to pull the trigger as Julia suddenly wandered in front of her. She stopped dead and sighed at Claire who lowered her arms hurriedly in case the gun went off by accident.

"If you had a brain, you'd be dangerous," Julia said sarcastically shaking her head as she made her way to the bathroom quickly. However she wasn't looking at where she was going and instead of getting to the door sauntered straight into the wall and bounced off it, her face filled with shock. Claire burst into laughter and nearly fell straight over.

"Even if I didn't have a brain _**I **_wouldn't do something as idiotic as that!" she spluttered. Julia looked up at her through her fringe, her eyes appearing darker than ever.

"I wouldn't mess with me man, I swear I'm still suffering from jet lag," she mumbled her excuse.

Claire giggled and nodded in mock-agreement. Julia rushed into the bathroom to check if her face was a tomato-red from it colliding with a wall and from blushing, whilst Claire zipped up her back-pack and shrugged it onto her shoulders.

She was joined shortly by her 'partner-in-crime' who copied her with her own bag before they both went for the window. Outside the sky was pitch-black; clouds swamped most of the night-sky and the moon was only at its Crescent shape, disappearing behind heavy clouds now and then. Julia whistled low so that only Claire could hear her.

"Lucky we've got all this cover," she whispered under her breath in relief. Claire nodded once before opening the window and clambering out. Julia struggled out after her and shut the window with a soft click, expertly flicking a thin piece of wire between the frame and the lock so that there was a tiny enough opening that they'd be able to get back in this way if necessary. The two daring spies straightened up against the dark building, their window and room in blackness and silent.

Claire brought out two guns and gave one to Julia; they both aimed at the roof above them and fired with a quiet snap. Something flew out the end a piece of black wire following after it until the two things collided with the roof and stuck there. Claire and Julia held on tightly to the extension guns for dear life, clicked a button on the side and they suddenly shot up, the strong wire coiling back into the extension gun. Once at the top the two held on to the edge of the roof and hauled their selves up before unclipping their guns, ducking down low and surveying the area for anything suspicious. All was clear. They hurried over to the fire escape that was situated on the other side of the building to their apartment and slid down as fast as they could. Once down the small ladder they rushed down the numerous escape stairs, silent against the regular noises of the city at night. Stealthily, they continued down dozens of flights of steps before reaching the last ladder and leaping down, too excited to slide down. They both landed on their feet in a crouched position and crept back into the shadows.

The two swung their arms back to the bottom of their back-packs where they had securely clasped their very own customized skateboards. They threw them to the floor and before they could properly land, the two girls had jumped on and were skating away, still as silent as bats' wings in the night…

They had no idea how long they had been in this dismal room for. All they knew was that they wouldn't give in or break to these assholes. If they wanted them to cry or beg to be let free in return for anything they were sadly mistaken. Pete sighed and slumped slightly in depression whilst Andy shifted his feet to lie uselessly in front of him. Patrick's face was buried in his knees, his arms wrapped round his legs. Joe was twisting his arm slightly to see what was wrong with it, muttering 'ouch' now and then. Each member of the infamous rock band sat in his own corner, ignoring everything around them even their own friends, but unable to get rid of the disturbing image of how the 'top dog' would drive them closer to insanity, or worse – death. As they sat in deadly silence the sound of bolts being opened from the opposite side of the steel door sounded making them jump up in fright. They huddled back against the opposite wall as three men appeared; two held Uzis and the last carried something small and covered in a cloth. He grinned wickedly showing several missing teeth and what little remained of the rest of his teeth. All four of the guys shuddered in revulsion as he came forward with his 'basket of mystery'.

He smirked again before whipping off the cloth and throwing whatever it was he had been holding to the floor. Without meaning to, the four that made Fall Out Boy crowded round the object in curiosity but recoiled just as quickly in disgust. The three burly men started out again, one of them barking gruffly 'eat up and enjoy!' before spluttering and coughing violently – what he thought was pleasant laughter. The door was shut once more with a thunderous clang and the small band of friends were left in almost total darkness once more, staring at a piece of stale bread starting to mould and a small glass bottle filled with a few drops of water. Their only meal for the past two days that they would have to share. They all stared at each other in discomfort before Pete growled in his throat like a wild animal in rage, sprang up like a Jack-in-the-box and kicked the only piece of food they had against the wall. It smashed against the solid brick work and dissolved into crumbs that seemed to turn an even nastier shade of green and yellow. Picking up the water next Pete threw it against the same wall and watched it smash into a thousand tiny shards of glass with little satisfaction. He stayed standing and was distantly aware and surprised to find himself breathing hard, his fists coiled into rock-hard weapons and the feeling of pure, loathing fury boiling away inside of him. At that very moment all he could think of was what he would do to the ringleader if they escaped and all he could see was blood-red. A comforting hand gripped his shoulder lightly and suddenly his vision returned to see his best friends crowded round him with sympathetic expressions.

He cleared his throat in embarrassment and looked at his now dust covered shoes.

"Sorry…" he muttered, unable to continue speaking. Joe placed an arm round his shoulder, Patrick patted his back in comfort and Andy tried to smile encouragingly. He was too choked up to say anything else and instead tried valiantly to smile back. A brief smile flitted across his face before his eyes clouded over again in depression and his face became dismal and hopeless...

They were still skating swiftly, a light breeze running through their streaming hair, when the call came. Claire felt the phone vibrate in her pocket the ringtone silenced, and motioned to Julia with a wave of her hand. Aiming their skateboards for a small alleyway coming up to the left of them, they ground on the back wheels slightly to slow down. They had made it into South California without hassle, arriving much sooner than they had anticipated which looked like a good omen to them. Claire pulled her phone out of her skinny black jeans and brought it to her ear whilst Julia kept watch on the narrow side-street next to them. She nodded several times and hung up, a nervous smile stuck on her face.

"They've traced it completely to Warehouse No. 34; it's the furthest one away from all the others. Clever buggers," she whispered to Julia, barely audible above the night breeze. Despite Julia's infamous, apparent deafness, she heard Claire clearly and nodded in determination. The two pushed off on their skateboards, the wheels crunched slightly on broken glass and tiny stones and they disappeared into the darkness once more, hardly a shadow left of them…

The Overhead Boss of the secret organisation was sitting comfortably in his chair at 4:00am England time. He was going over the mission details once more so as to make sure nothing went wrong but he was dozing off. Even though he was getting on, around the 60 or 65 year mark, he still looked in shape with a good-looking face that must have been incredibly handsome once, but the years of working at this job had made him look quite weary. His hair was turning grey slightly every day but it was still mainly jet-black and he still had a full head of hair. Despite being quite old his eyes still burned with the fierce determination and courage that had influenced many other spies whilst training. He took a sip of his luke-warm coffee sitting on his desk, sighed heavily and rubbed the bridge of his nose in exhaustion. It was then that he heard the elevator bell ping and a sudden torrent of harsh swearing and yelling. His head whipped up to look at the door and when a gun shot and several shrieks were heard he stood up as if he had been electrocuted, knocking his large, squashy chair backward in his haste to the door.

Pulling it open he just backed out of the way of several agents rushing down the corridor to confront the apparent terrorists. There was an almighty bang quite close to the Boss's Head Office as one of the enemy pulled the trigger on a pistol and sent one of the agents sprawling to the ground, scarlet blood already pooling from his wounded shoulder. There was a round of gunfire and all those that had run forward to fight back where now twisting on the floor in pain, either clutching wounded arms, legs or in one case the side of their stomach. His face was ghostly white as the Boss ran forward to examine him. It wasn't as bas as it had seemed; the man hadn't been hit in any important organs and would most likely survive. The Boss hurriedly rootled through a nearby desk for the Emergency Kit that was a requirement in each cubicle desk. The terrorists were still firing their guns into the air to silence the petrified employees. The Boss swore loudly as a piece of ceiling fell on him and the injured employee when his hand grabbed hold of the handle for the First Aid Kit. Hauling it out faster than he could blink, he had the case open and a thick cloth on the open shot wound of the colleague in less than five seconds.

Grabbing a nearby cowering worker, he yelled above the thundering noise for him to apply pressure. When the shaky colleague obliged and pressed the cloth firmly on the wound with a reluctant hand, the Boss ducked down, army rolled back into his office and sprinted to his large oaken desk. Pulling the bottom right drawer open, his hand shot straight in and grasped the pistol concealed under several layers of documents. But before he could straighten up again, he heard a gun click and the cold barrel of the weapon pushed against the back of his head gently. Bravely he turned to face his enemy who smiled back at him.

"You didn't honestly think you could keep this situation under control, did you old man?" he asked patronizingly in a deep American drawl. There was the sound of heavy, pounding footsteps and the Boss had the immediate sense of being joined by more henchmen. He grimaced and nodded his head in regretful defeat as he was gripped by the arm and dragged back out into the office room, his mind haunted by the image of seeing an old friend…


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"This is it," Julia mumbled under her breath, gesturing slightly to the bold '34' painted on the side of the dilapidated warehouse. Claire did an automatic 360' turn to check if the coast was clear before following Julia in a weird, crouched, side-stepping jog. The warehouse was bigger than they thought, towering above them and seeming to stretch on in the inky blackness.

"In and out," Claire breathed out with pulled together confidence.

"Don't fear the reaper," Julia hissed back in a strong voice.

Cocking their extension guns, they aimed upward again and fired with a quiet crack. The wire and hook at the end whistled through the air and slammed into the crumbling roof. A few seconds later, the two were airborne and gliding through the air with ease. Once at the top, they unclipped their guns and landed with a slight bump onto a ledge dangling underneath them. Under the ledge, a large, smashed window opened up to them, the malignant darkness uninviting and unnerving. They packed their extension guns again, dropped to the edge of the ledge and gripped to it before swinging down beneath it onto a second ledge directly next to the window.

They clambered lightly through the broken window, avoiding the remaining deadly, pointed shards of glass embedded still in the frame. In the warehouse they came straight onto a runway made from long planks of wood. Hastily they made their way to the right following their instincts, their shoes padding softly against the runway; the only sound heard was the dim echoing of water dripping down from the roof. There were twists to the runway and several times they came to moulding, steel staircases, forcing them to turn back and find a safer route. They couldn't take any chances with this mission. It had to go successfully or there would be dire consequences. The two girls were still walking fast, doubled up and hidden in the shadows, when Claire had the feeling she wasn't with her comrade. She twisted her head slightly, her ears open for anything creeping up on her back, and started toward Julia who was leaning carefully over a railing, transfixed by something curious. Claire reached her and leant over the railing too, searching for whatever it was Julia had stopped so suddenly for. She couldn't see anything out of the ordinary but when she turned to carry on down the walkway, Julia grasped her arm and pointed downward.

Claire squinted again and saw what Julia was looking at. Right at the very bottom of the warehouse, maybe in the basement for all they knew, there was the visible shimmering glow of an electric light, shining off the glistening, damp walls. As they watched, a shadow suddenly hovered along the small corridor the light was in and twisted round slightly. The two spies leapt back in case they were caught and nodded to each other before setting off at a faster pace down the walkway again. They knew where they had to go now; it was just a question of getting there without being discovered…

"You'll never get away with this, you do realize?" the Boss asked into the open air in a slightly humorous voice. He was sitting on the office floor his arms bound together in strong cord along with every other employee in the building. They had been forced to sit on the floor whilst the terrorists patrolled up and down the corridors, spitting on the floor at their feet. The wounded had been piled to another side of the room and given First Aid Kits, an answered plea of the Boss who wouldn't see any of his beloved employees and friends fall into serious circumstances. He was answered by a raucous laugh from the ringleader, who leant against a desk and surveyed the room and the prisoners with certain glee, his eyes seeming to grow colder.

"How often do your colleagues hear that I wonder?" he answered mockingly. "Of course I'll get away with it, nobody knows who I am. As far as they know, I was killed four years ago, thanks to your anonymous cover-up story," he ended in a bitter tone.

The Boss grimaced.

"I couldn't let you go easy. You knew this. You wanted to take over the organisation, get rid of me, then you would be able to do whatever it was that you wanted. You may have taken us prisoners, but that does not mean you're in control, far from it," he tried to reason with the aggressive man.

He glared back with loathing before wandering into the Boss's office. A few seconds later he returned, a malevolent grin fixed on his face. The Boss hid the confusion from his face but when the ringleader showed him a photo he had found in the Boss's office, he felt his face turn slightly white before turning to its normal colour.

The man grinned at the picture of two girls in the wooden, patterned picture frame, an arm around each other's shoulder, wide grins whilst they were surrounded by a few of their friends jumping in the background. The psychotic man stroked his chin in amusement and thought. His eyes flickered up to the Boss again and he chuckled slightly.

"Your two best agents, hmm?" he commented.

He stared at the picture again before throwing it to the ground at the Boss's feet where it smashed and the glass tore into the girls' faces. The Boss looked up in time to see him call together a broad-shouldered, butch henchman, the second in command of the whole operation perhaps.

"I have to return to America," the Boss overheard him explain to his comrade, "That's where the girls are, and that's where they'll have their graves dug."

The Boss refrained from gasping but his eyes widened in shock and horror. He knew this man, knew he wouldn't explain something to a comrade loud enough for someone else to hear. It was clear he wanted the whole organisation to know two of the best agents were about to be exterminated. He smirked coldly at the captives before sauntering calmly out through the double doors…

They couldn't talk, it was too dangerous now. The two professional spies had reached the bottom floor now and were following dank corridor after dank corridor. Twice they had almost been found out, and now stakes were rising so high there was little left to rise by until they hit the roof. Claire and Julia couldn't hide in the shadows anymore, the light bulbs swinging from above their heads made it impossible for any darkness to creep through the corridors. Now it was a life or death situation; if a guard came round at the wrong moment or they made enough noise, it would be curtains for them. At that moment the girls heard a noise ahead around a far away corner and froze as if they had turned to ice. Glancing round in angst the feeling of dread crept over them as the sound of footsteps and low mumbling approached them, getting louder and louder as it neared. Claire suddenly felt a hand grip her shoulder and she swung round in shock to see Julia motioning for an escape route. Claire followed where she was pointing and caught on quick, making a mental note to thank Julia for an ingenious idea. They had disappeared from view just as two burly men came stumbling round the corner and started down the corridor.

"Did you just see that?" one of the cronies asked his friend as they passed close to where the two girls were hiding with baited breath.

'Don't look over here, don't look over here,' Claire pleaded to herself frantically.

"No, you probably just saw something fall off the ceiling from the above floor," his friend replied in a surprisingly high voice for such a vast person. The second man swung a torch round, its light beam illuminating the area it landed on. Twice it swung over Julia and Claire's hiding place and they had to refrain from flinching. Once satisfied, he stared at his friend quizzically and began making his way down the corridor again. As soon as their footsteps sounded distant enough, Julia and Claire unhooked their legs from a wooden beam in the ceiling of the basement and swung down, landing lightly on their feet like a pair of cats.

Julia stared up at the large, black hole they had just hidden in and gave Claire a look that said 'Am I a genius? Or am I a genius?' Claire rolled her eyes and sprinted silently down the hallway to the corner, followed hastily by Julia. Crouching down to the floor she pulled a small mirror from a side pocket of her backpack and pushed part of it round the corner, swivelling it up and down until she got a clear view of the state of the area up ahead. She held up five fingers and then two to symbolise that there were seven guards keeping watch. Julia stood back and jigged about slightly to prepare herself. Claire straightened up and stretched her legs whilst Julia stretched her arm behind her back. Once they were finished they grimaced at each other before pulling their beanies over their heads. Julia opened Claire's backpack, barely making a sound, and drew out a small hockey-puck shaped canister. Claire covered her mouth with a cloth as Julia rolled it along the floor, watching it slide toward the unsuspecting guards. It nudged one of them on the foot and bounced off one side, making him glance down in astonishment. Just as he bent his head the canister exploded and emitted a thick cloud of smoke in a matter of milliseconds, engulfing them in a smokescreen.

As the seven bodyguards gagged and spluttered, Claire and Julia rushed in stealthily and leapt into the air at different men. Claire spun round once in the air and slammed a powerful kick to the side of one guy's head. He backed up as she struck out both open palms and caught him on either side of the neck. His eyes glazed over as he collapsed backward. Julia was blocking punches from two of them at once before dropping to the floor to avoid a hammer blow, swinging her foot round their ankles and tripping them up. Joining together again, they yelled out how many were down to each other before launching another vicious attack on the cronies. Both worked well together, coordinating with each other and springing up from nowhere at different times to confuse their opponents. Less than a minute later, there were six unconscious bodies littering the floor and there was about to be another. Both kicked him back against the wall and swung out a right-jab simultaneously. His head flew back and cracked against the wall; he slumped to the ground as the girls listened out for anymore commotion and searched for keys to the steel door behind them.

Claire cried out in excitement as she jangled the keys from her index finger. Julia punched the air and exclaimed 'kerching!' as she rushed forward to open the door. There were several keys and several locks and one big problem: they didn't know which key opened which lock. They tried out each one quickly twisting both ways, praying desperately that they would get in. There was a sudden click as the first lock brought them closer to freeing Fall Out Boy. The girls whooped and high-fived before setting down to work again. A few moments later the second lock clicked but there was no celebration as the sound of running footsteps approached them, the din echoing off the walls. They stared at each other white-faced and tried desperately to unlock the last two locks. The penultimate key to use put them one step further, and as the last key fitted they breathed a sigh of relief and joy. Shifting a pair of heavy bolts out the way, the two flung the door open and stared into the dim room, just making out the figures of four crouched people.

Suddenly a gun shot blasted into the air, way too close for comfort. Sprinting into the room, the girls grabbed two of the bewildered guys each and marched them out into the light again. All four of them blinked in the sudden brightness, so used to the darkness in the room behind them.

"Who are you?" Pete asked, his eyes blinking crazily trying to adjust to the sudden light. There was no time for questions though as the girls pushed them toward a long corridor off to the side of the tiny room they were in now. The four started down, turning round just in time to see one of them, the taller one bring out a pair of pistols from the belt around her waist and take aim down the other corridor. A bullet whistled past her, narrowly avoiding her head and imbedding itself in the wall behind her. The shorter one bellowed at them to move it and started sprinting down the corridor after them, forcing them to run as fast as they could. The girl with the weapons was still firing at the enemy, side-stepping closer to the escape route, breaking into a run as the opponents made it into the small room. The four men came to a corner and continued without stopping, looking over their shoulders to see where the two mysterious girls were.

The one with the guns was still firing bullets at the gaining henchmen, jogging backward seeming to know where the corner was. Bullets kept missing her and her friend by a fraction and the band had to stop their selves from yelling out a warning in shock. The basement hallways twisted and turned on and on and it wasn't until a few minutes later did they finally reach a rickety stair case. It looked dangerous, but while they were figuring out how they were going to climb up without falling down and breaking their necks, one of the girls appeared and stared at them in horror.

"What are you doing!" she shrieked. "GO! Go now!"

Ignoring the feeling of unease in their stomachs and the horrible feeling of a vice-grip round their hearts, they clambered up the stairs one after the other followed only milliseconds later by the girl who shoved them forward again to continue running.

They were panting uncontrollably, their chests feeling tight and their legs were in immense pain. Their prison cell hadn't been big enough to walk around enough in; they hadn't run around for a long time it seemed and their muscles were cramping painfully. Even so, they pressed on desperate to escape this hellhole. But instead of going out the huge double doors they could see ahead, the girl directed them to another set of stairs, waiting impatiently at the bottom for them to go up first. Once more they clambered up a seemingly never-ending stair case, coming up to a wooden walkway. The girl was by their side in a flash as always. There was another gun shot and the shadowy figure of a head popped up the stairs. The smaller girl whipped out a pistol and aimed carefully. Instead of shooting, she replaced it and continued the long gruelling journey along the walkway, ignoring the horrified looks on the guys' faces. It was only the taller girl sprinting along now pushing them forward yet again. By the end of this they'd be covered in bruises.

Up another flight of stairs; along another unsteady runway; another stair case; and another; along a runway. It didn't seem as if they were heading in any particular direction but the girls seemed to know where they were going. As they headed onto the highest runway possible, towering high above the entire inside warehouse, there was the distant sound of the men arguing a few floors below them, whilst some of them rushed to a group of boxes piled on that particular floor. Throwing the lids open, the six escapees peered over the railing to see inside the box: machine-guns. The four guys were hauled back over to a window, half-boarded up the other half completely smashed. Stepping out onto a small ledge next to the window, they breathed in with momentary solitude the sweet smell of fresh air, enjoyed the sudden gust of wind that overbalanced them slightly. But a second later it was gone, the sounds of shots came back to them and the sense of fear took over once more.

Only then did they notice their two heroines pulling out more guns. But these guns were strange, not like regular ones. The answer as to what they were came when the mystery heroines leant over the edge and shot underneath the ledge they were standing on and motioned for the guys to come closer. They edged along the ledge suddenly noticing how high up they were. The girls thrust the guns in their hands and yelled above the noise to hold on tight no matter what and when at the bottom to click the red button on the side and the guns would travel back. Pete and Andy took the first go, crawling along to the very edge, twisting round to hold onto the tiny runway and reluctantly releasing their strong grip on the wooden planks, disappearing into the darkness below them. About ten seconds later there was a faraway click; the guns suddenly appeared out of nowhere seeming to travel lazily back to its owners.

Patrick and Joe snatched the handles and copied Pete and Andy's moves to the edge, only stopping to turn round and see how the girls were doing. They were firing back at their opponents, reloading their weapons in the blink of an eye. They both turned and stared at Patrick and Joe and motioned violently for them to go. Taking a deep breath the two plunged over the side, the speed they were travelling at making them catch their breath in their throats. In what seemed like no time at all the ground zoomed closer; they landed on their feet but fell backwards and sat up next to Pete and Andy who were only just getting back up off the floor. Only just remembering, the two clicked the red buttons on the sides of the extension guns and craned their necks to see them go whizzing back up.

Only a few moments had passed since they'd lost sight of the ingenious weapons when the sound of the heroes coming down now came to their attention. They appeared dimly out of the blackness of the night, landing smoothly and expertly, unclipping the wire from their extension guns and packing them back into the backpacks. A gun was heard from above their heads; the two girls leapt back with the band as a bullet smashed into the concrete ground, narrowly missing their feet. The guys didn't even have enough time to look up; the girls were already dragging them away into the darkness. The henchmen became wild with rage and fired in all directions in the hope of a hit. As the six escapees swiftly sprinted around the maze of unwelcoming warehouses, the gunfire became distant noises in the stillness of the night. Finally after a few minutes of running the girls allowed the band to have a rest. They sank to the floor stretching out their cramped legs whilst the two girls kept watch on the area. The smaller girl whispered in a low voice to her friend who nodded and shot off as if she had a jetpack. The guys looked up as the girl who had stayed stared anywhere but at them, her cheeks seeming slightly pinker than usual, even after the running.

"So what's going on? Who are you girls and who the hell were those assholes that kidnapped us?" Patrick asked in a torrent of questions. The girl didn't answer but turned the other way slightly and went even pinker, her face struggling to keep a composed look. Patrick sighed and sank down to the floor again as the second girl returned out of nowhere. Under her left arm she carried a bunch of wooden boards it seemed in the dim light of a nearby street lamp. When she was close enough the band saw she had an armful of skateboards. She avoided looking at them too.

"Can you guys skate?" she asked the floor quietly and clearly.

The guys looked at each other and nodded their heads.

"Reasonably," Joe shrugged. She looked up for a millisecond to see their answer, before placing the skateboards neatly on the concrete ground and facing her friend. Suspiciously her cheeks had become flushed too and her eyes were brighter.

The four friends shrugged slightly at each other and stood up with difficulty; they'd become quite comfortable on the floor strange as it was to admit it. The girls were just setting down their own skateboards when the darker-haired girl sprung back up, her face slightly screwed up in concentration and anger. The guys couldn't hear anything. But she was whispering furiously to her partner who looked behind her every now and then before placing a foot on her skateboard.

"We've got…" the darker girl began, a glazed look suddenly coming over her face as she rapidly calculated some strange sum in her head. "Maybe half a minute until they get here; we've gotta roll."

With that, she took off on her board in the blink of an eye. The band stared round wildly at each other and the darkness where their recent prison had just been before kicking off from the ground and speeding away, closely followed by their second 'bodyguard'. The girl at the front directed them round the warehouse estate until they reached a black road that looked more like a deep black river; hardly comforting.

Suddenly they heard it; the unmistakable sound of wheels screeching and raucous yelling from behind them. They kicked off even harder this time determined completely to escape. Pete was just wondering vacantly if they were going to be making their getaway on skateboards, where they had come from they didn't know, when the lead of the unusual group turned off sharply to the right apparently spotting something. The band followed her like sheep down a large alleyway next to a dodgy looking shop, when she flipped the front of her skateboard up slightly, stepped off and kicked her board up before approaching a random, crimson-coloured Mercedes, well past its sell-by-date. The sound of the car with the sadistic guys suddenly roared into the silent night air, sounding horribly closer than they'd expected. There was a sudden smash making them whip round quickly. The girl who had led them had smashed the window of the car. 'Is there a point to this?' Pete had to refrain himself from blurting out. She leaned in and jabbed the button to open the back-door locks before opening her own door and sliding in.

Understanding what was going on they jogged forward and jumped in the back of the waiting vehicle joined by the fellow comrade in the passenger seat. As soon as she got in the two of them ducked, hissing at the bemused band to do so too. Slowly and unsurely they sank down in the cold, unfamiliar seats until nothing could be seen in the car from outside. Joe twisted round slightly stuck in an uncomfortable position and suddenly had a perfect view of what was happening in the front seats. The smaller girl was holding a small penlight whilst her friend ripped open part of the car, under the steering wheel, as if it were paper and flung it to one side. She swung herself under the steering wheel holding her hand out for the penlight. Pointing the glare of the light at the numerous wires behind the steering wheel she got to work hotwiring the car whilst her friend raised her head slightly. As she was about to connect a blue and yellow wire together, her partner gripped her shoulder in warning and lowered her head again. The light went out and there was silence in the freezing, crowded car. Outside there was the roar of an engine as a van, most likely, zoomed past on the dreary road.

The noise passed and all was silent again, the noise of the van and its occupants a distant memory already. The girls breathed out in relief; they'd been holding their breath in anxiety. The light flashed on again, there were a few sparks as the girl brought the two wires together and the engine crackled into life, although from the sounds of it there wasn't much life left in it. The two working together sprung back up as if they'd never been ducking down in the first place, and whilst the other four struggled to sit back up the car rolled down the alleyway and along the road, going in the complete opposite route to the recent van. They drove for about an hour coming into a more urban part of whatever state they were in; the band didn't know and didn't care, so happy were they to be out of their captives' hands. The car pulled up sharply outside a stately motel, the sign still working perfectly and showing them there was a vacancy.

Parking carefully, the girls jumped out the moment the key was out of the ignition and pulled open the backdoors. The guys were out but there was only one saviour with them now, the other had gone to the main desk to book some rooms. She didn't look happy or relieved nor did she look depressed or angry. Her face assumed the expression of curiosity. Not as to whom they were, it was obvious she knew, but the same question they had been asking themselves for nearly the past three days: why them? The friend returned in a matter or minutes a golden key clutched tightly in her hand as if she were afraid someone might steal it. The five standing by the car started toward her, following in her wake as she travelled up a flight of stairs and round to the back of the motel, hidden by foliage and a large shop to the side of the motel. Reaching a partially scratched door she slotted the key in, shoved the door opened gently and strode in, straight away to the beds moving them around for some reason unknown to the tired, irritated, confused four friends.

The second girl had been staring out the window, her eyebrows furrowed slightly in frustration. She turned and strode past the band trying to look away and keep the pink out of her cheeks again. Kneeling down she unzipped hers and her partner's backpacks and brought out two blue, squashy sleeping bags. The band stared at her mouths gaping; it wasn't that they were insulted at the idea of having to sleep in sleeping bags, they were just wondering how much stuff they fit in those backpacks. The girl glanced up at their gobsmacked faces and turned away to keep from laughing. Her friend had finished and had started a kettle supplied by the motel owners. A few minutes later the kettle was done; the taller girl leapt forward and poured out the boiling water into six cups hurriedly. Her friend stared at her with an eyebrow raised in amusement at the speed and professionalism she worked at. In less than a minute there were six cups of steaming tea which were quickly handed out to the band. They stared down at their cups with astonishment.

"Drink it, you need the sugar for the shock," the smaller friend said softly in a comforting, gentle voice. Glancing at each other, Patrick went first and took a sip. Surprisingly the tea was sweet and had a strange fruity essence to it that made Patrick drink it faster. The others followed his action until the cups were drained.

"That was actually pretty nice," Patrick complimented, grinning warmly at the smaller girl. She lowered her gaze to the floor trying to cover the glazed look in her eyes, the red blush on her cheeks and the vacant grin on her face. Her friend rolled her eyes at her.

"Get some sleep," she muttered shortly, clearly not one for big, flattering conversations at a time like this. "We've got stuff to do later and you're gonna need all the rest you can get."

She motioned the double beds.

"If you guys don't mind, you're gonna have to share. Me and Claire" - she motioned at her grinning pal -"never sleep comfortably on a job; we can be heavy sleepers if we get too comfy."

She turned away with both backpacks in tow.

"Wait!" Joe nearly shouted, stepping forward a few steps. The girl paused and waited for him to continue.

"I'm not doing anything you say until you give us some answers. We don't know who you are, where you came from, who those guys were, why we w-were kidnapped a…and…" he yawned suddenly and stretched trying to carry on his failing argument. "I won't…go to sleeeeep until I…umm…we…g-get…" he stopped and slumped forward a little from exhaustion, his words now slurring and his sentences making no sense whatsoever.

The girl grinned as the others started yawning and climbing into bed, two to each one. Her arms were folded as she treaded lightly over to the bed Joe was snuggling up in.

"In case you're wondering what's going on, I put a sleeping drug in each of your teas. I guessed you would start asking questions and to be perfectly honest, I can't be bothered to answer questions at the insane time of 2:17 in the morning, and if you expected me to you've got another thing coming pal," she explained with a small grin.

Joe hardly registered she was there. He and Patrick, who were sharing the same bed, snuggled down further.

"Night nigh…" he slurred before dozing off.

"Night my ickle angels," she replied sarcastically in a mono-tone, suppressing the urge to burst into laughter. She made her way over to the mini-fridge and withdrew two cans of Diet Coke. She threw one to Claire, cracked hers open and raised her drink.

"Happy birthday Claire," she toasted quietly with a grin.

Claire grinned back and clinked her can against Julia's before the two drank in celebration…


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Andy opened his eyes blearily. It was light; too light. He was so used to being in darkness it was a shock to wake up to light streaming in through a nearby window. But he just wasn't shocked enough to wake up properly. He sighed and turned over onto his side, convinced his whole 'ordeal' had been nothing but a mere dream. However when he rolled over the face of one his best friends swam into focus alarmingly. He shot up and stopped himself from yelping in astonishment. Pete hardly noticed anything; his eyebrows crossed slightly and his fist which was by his face curled up even tighter, before he rolled over himself. Only then did Andy realize he was shaking slightly and that his vision was blurred. He blinked and groped around him to find his glasses; he didn't remember taking them off before he'd fallen fast asleep, nor did he remember anyone else taking them off. His hand collided with a small bedside table. There were his glasses! He snatched them up and placed them on his nose, wriggling them into place. Now he had a clear view of the small room he was in: Pete was still sleeping deeply next to him his hand twitching now and then. Over to the right of Pete there was another bed occupied by his other friends Patrick and Joe. He could only see the back of Patrick whereas Joe looked dangerously close to falling over the side. Suddenly remembering something from the previous night he whipped his head round and had to stop from exclaiming again.

There were two sleeping bags on the floor, one occupied by a girl in light blue pyjamas who was tapping at a laptop in front of her, glancing every now and then at a strange contraption connected to the Macbook. Sitting hunched up in a red plush armchair was another girl with glasses, black pyjamas with red splatter stains and a dark blue dressing-gown. She was also in control of a laptop, her fingers flying lightly over the keyboard in a flash; it looked to Andy that she wasn't even touching the keys. She paused and leant to the right to flick the switch of a small plastic kettle resting on a table, her eyes still glued to the laptop screen. She chewed at her thumb nail whilst waiting for something to load or reading something, as her friend glanced behind her quickly when she thought she wasn't looking. The girl sighed, lowered the top of her laptop and peered at her friend wearily one eyebrow raised.

"Seriously, keep looking at him and eventually your eyes are just gonna show that for the rest of your life," she piped up in a sarcastic but bright voice. "If you want him so bad Claire, jump in there while he's still sleeping and snuggle up," she carried on, returning to her laptop.

Her friend, Claire, glared back at her, her cheeks flushing scarlet.

"Yeah, I'll knock _**him **_out so you two can get better acquainted," she fired back cuttingly, nodding her head at the bed behind her.

Her friend grinned back and threw a cushion at her feebly in a jokey way. The kettle clicked off, steam issuing crazily from the spout. The girl in the chair pushed herself up, swaying slightly from head rush and started pouring out boiling water into three cups.

"Do you want coffee or tea Andy?" she called into the air, her back still to Andy. He blinked and shrank back slightly, feeling a little intimated for some strange reason.

"Er…um…c-coffee. Black…thanks," he stuttered.

The girl pulled open the door of a mini-fridge next to the table and grabbed a bottle of milk. About ten seconds later, she shuffled over in fluffy slipper-socks and handed Andy a mug of steaming coffee. He took it with caution and stared down at it warily as if it might explode like a bomb. Still wary, he swilled it round a little in inspection; she smiled warmly.

"Just 'cause I put sleeping drugs in your drink last night doesn't mean I'm gonna do it in the morning," she said slowly. He looked up and sheepishly started sipping at his coffee. "We need you today anyways, all of you," she continued walking back to her chair, pausing only to hand a mug of tea to Claire. "But don't worry we won't wake them up now; we don't want them to be cranky, especially me. I get annoyed at cranky people."

"Despite the fact that you are in_**cred**_ibly moany in the morning Julia," her friend replied raising her head and grinning.

Julia was taking a drink of her own tea but still managed to pull a face at her somehow. She lowered her mug, swallowed and corrected her, "'Moany' no, bitchy yes."

Andy was slightly shocked to find himself grinning at their little conversation. The three of them spent the next few minutes gulping down their drinks in silence. Andy's eyes darted round the room, now adjusted to the brightness of the fresh morning. It didn't seem like a very important nor expensive room, it was just a basic motel room occupied by six people; three he knew quite well and who had just been through a tough experience, two he didn't know at all but was grateful to for saving his and his friends' lives.

"And I want to thank the man in the moon…" came the sleepy mumbles of Patrick.

Claire stifled her chuckle whereas Julia twisted her head to face the wall but couldn't refrain from snorting with laughter. Pete jolted awake and struggled to sit up, still half-asleep. He yawned, stretched and rubbed his eyes weakly before attempting to step out of the warm bed. He pulled a face and blew his fringe up out of his face before taking the first difficult leap of getting out of bed. Julia reached into the girls' two backpacks that lay beside her chair and dragged out several pairs of slippers. Throwing two pairs to Andy, she looked over at the second bed, returning her gaze to her laptop screen. Andy passed a pair to Pete who took them with a groan and a nod. Both lifted their selves out of opposite sides of bed and shuffled their feet into the slippers. Surprisingly they fitted well as if the girls knew their shoe size, which to be perfectly honest they most likely did. Andy shrugged; Pete squinted at the two girls and swayed slightly.

"Mommy?" Patrick piped up suddenly, sitting up in an instant. His sudden movement awoke Joe who had time to mutter 'Magic unicorn', before dropping out of bed onto the carpeted floor. He leapt up as Patrick pulled the duvet over himself again.

"It's like looking into a mirror in the morning," Julia whispered to Claire in mock-surprise.

Patrick rolled out the other side, stood up slowly and joined Pete and Joe who were shuffling over to the girls like sleep-walking zombies in a trance. Andy managed to walk over to the girls normally without dragging his feet; although he was the only one who had had coffee to be fair. When the 'Sleeping Beauties' had reached them, Julia stood up and stared them in the eye although it seemed as if she tried to avoid Joe's eye.

"O.K, my name's Julia, this is Claire," she indicated her friend who waved politely. "We're top-class secret agents; we were put on this mission to help get you out of that hellhole. We don't know who it was that kidnapped you as of yet, that's not our specific field." She sighed, "As you've probably guessed by now, yes I have an English accent. Yes my good friend Claire has an English accent. Yes…we _**are**_ English. Don't take any offence, it's just you Yanks seem to have a sugar-rush whenever you meet someone with an English accent. And in case you're wondering…yes, I am sarcastic and can sometimes be prejudiced. But this mission is important and I'm kinda stressed out at the moment seeing as we pretty much had time off when all this happened."

"Cool it Jules," Claire advised her.

Julia sat back arms crossed and Claire cleared her throat. Instantly the band picked up what type of moods these girls were usually like and how they went through everyday; Claire was pretty much the Peacemaker of the two, maybe a little short-tempered like her fellow colleague and friend but seemingly calmer. Julia on the other hand sounded like the sort-of person who could be calm if she wanted but had a fiery temper when she was agitated. Which she was now; maybe not majorly but she was building up the steam from the looks of things.

Pete cleared his throat, opened his mouth and closed it slowly again.

"S-so…where are we going…after here…I mean out of this motel?" he questioned them quietly. "Is your top-secret…organisation or whatever it is…is it in England?"

"Smart lad," Julia mumbled staring down and typing once more on her laptop.

"But that'll mean we'll have to go wherever you go right?" Joe burst in.

"Bingo," Claire replied looking him in the eye.

"So we have to go England with you girls for however long it takes to sort this out?" Andy asked indignantly, his expression basically saying 'you are joking?'

"Indeedly," Julia piped up sounding slightly moody.

There was a pause of silence whilst the band came to difficult, shocked, reluctant terms with this news.

"Soooo…why aren't we going now?" Patrick enquired, eyebrows furrowed.

"We're still waiting for the call that says it's safe to enter back into the country. And then if we get in we have to wait for another call to say it's safe to take you to HQ," Claire mumbled back, looking away from him.

There was a snap and the guys jumped. Julia rolled her eyes; she'd only shut the lid of her Macbook. She stood up suddenly, flicked open the top of the kettle and poured in water from a large Evian Water bottle. When she was certain there was enough water, she pushed the lid and the switch down simultaneously and twisted round, arms still folded tightly.

"I don't think you guys know just how important you are," she began slowly. They looked at each other in confusion. "Why is it that a kidnapper who got all the guns illegally, snuck you into a run-down, dilapidated warehouse that probably costs less than my left foot, hired some of the…_**dumbest**_ henchmen I have ever set my sights on and didn't even have the sense to be there to make sure the whole thing ran smoothly…why did he kidnap an infamous rock band that thousands of fans adore and would notice missing, each of the four members definitely worth a bundle and making a bijillion dollars altogether, a band that he knew someo-…"

She stopped suddenly and her eyebrows knotted together in concentration. Claire's pocket on her jean leg started suddenly vibrating and she drew out her phone with a flourish.

"Peyton and Errwin here," she said straight away with their undercover names, not beating around the bush. She nodded and drew the mobile phone away from her ear, clicking the button for speakerphone. There was a static crackle and then a metallic voice rang out.

"Claire and Julia," it began which seemed normal to the guys but the girls had different reactions; Claire's eyes widened and she stared at the phone in shock, nearly dropping it to the ground, Julia whipped round in horror and started forward, her expression turning to one of rage and puzzlement. The caller cleared their throat.

"This is the Boss's right-hand man Josh," the caller started in a mono-tone, "It's safe to come back, the ones that took Fall Out Boy (who I assume are there?) have run to another country in the East. There's a flight going out tonight at 5:30pm. See you soon girls."

The phone cut dead and the band of four laughed in relief with each other.

"So this is all over!" Pete cried out punching the air.

"We can go home now ri-…" Patrick exclaimed in excitement as he turned to look at the two girls; they however were not in the mood for celebrations. Claire had sunk into the chair and had her head resting on her palm. Julia leant against the wall, hands by her side, the expression of a creeping realization dawning on her.

The boys stopped dancing and high-fiving and gazed at them in bemusement. Joe blinked and an eyebrow rose as he quietly chuckled a few times nervously.

"Uh…hello?" he said in a 'duh' tone. "This is a good thing right? Last time I checked it definitely was, soooo…why the faces like you're about to take on Mohammed Ali?" he finished with a chuckle. Claire looked up at him in what seemed like pity and irritation. His eyes swept to Julia who stared back stonily at him, daring him to utter one more word.

"The guy that started all this Julia," Claire hurriedly whispered to her tense friend. "He must know something that we don't; he's at the organisation right now most likely-…"

"That's why he wasn't there," Julia interrupted smoothly in a calm enough voice, but Claire could see the rage boiling up inside. "He knew about our agency; he knew we would be asked about this; he knew someone from our agency would be chosen."

She had started pacing slowly when she stopped abruptly.

"Julia..."

"He knows about us," she barely spoke.

"O.K, I am completely lost," Pete broke in shaking his head, "Can someone please explain to us what the hell is going on?"

Julia had strode away to face the window silently. Claire glanced over at her and cleared her throat.

"On a mission, everyone knows that it is vital you DO NOT tell over the phone or email someone's real name. Everybody at the agency has a secret, under-cover name that everybody else should know and should call them by. When Josh phoned us, he used our real names, which means something bad has happened."

"The guy running the show must know us because Josh would have still given us fake names," Julia quietly stated. Claire's eyes opened wide as she realized her friend was right. "But he wouldn't have been there at the time; someone could've recognised him and yelled it out to us. Meaning that he's most likely travelling as we speak," she turned and grimaced at the stricken band.

"So…he's on the lam or what?" Andy asked shakily.

She sighed.

"No most likely coming back to America. If he knows us and knows that we know about the mission ("Huh?" Joe muttered to Patrick quietly) then he'll be on his way _**back**_ to get you guys under lock and key again."

The guys sighed and Pete sank into the comfy chair, Claire vacating it in a second.

"So we're stuck here on the run until they find us?" Pete sighed, one hand against his forehead in frustration and depression.

To the others' astonishment, Julia grinned heartily.

"Oh no, we're going back to England!"

The guys gaped at her, mouths wide open.

Pete was the first to look away at the floor before attempting to make some sense of this whole scenario.

"B…but you said that the evil guy was at your organisation…in England?"

Claire nodded.

"Yep."

He blinked again.

"So…why the hell are we going _**to**_ England?"

Julia looked sideways at Claire and shrugged.

"We have to get you out of the country because _**he **_is coming _**back**_ to America, right?" she explained to the puzzled band; they nodded slowly in response. "So if we go back like today, it's not exactly like he can fly onto our plane. We're not that good at our jobs! If we go back, we can go to our 'Sister' Organisation; they might be smaller but that way they're better hidden from the outside world."

She paused and contemplated the matter before swearing loudly and covering her face with her hands. Claire stared at her aghast as she realized too what her friend was thinking.

"We can't go to the other organisation," Claire said wearily as the guys got ready to fire questions. "The only way to communicate with them is through the Head Office, and even then with a situation like this it'll take them several days maybe to get down there. Plus, for all we know, that agency could've been taken over too."

She slumped backwards as Patrick sat on the thick carpeted floor against the bed, Andy leant against the opposite wall banging his head lightly, Joe flopped backward onto one of the beds and Pete slumped even farther down in the chair, hanging his head backward. There was the soft sound of padding feet and Julia had returned from the bathroom where it had sounded like she had been trying hard to refrain punching the wall, swearing every word she knew under the sun. She frowned at them, a stone-hard determined look in her eye.

"We still have to go back."

Claire twisted her head slightly in her friend's direction.

"It's safer there than it is here, let's face it. At least there we know where we're going. And I know you guys probably know California like the back of your hands," she continued addressing the depressed band, "No offence, but we can't leave it to your directions; Claire and I are the professional spies and we need to be somewhere familiar and somewhere we know."

Claire nodded in agreement, breathing out loudly in defeat.

"That's all well and good but two questions," Patrick began quietly and frustrated, "One, what are we actually going to _**do**_ when we get there? Two, _**how**_ are we supposed to get there? I mean if this guy is really good then he'll have people watching the airlines right? Who knows, we could end up at the same airport as his flight!"

"Working on it!" came Claire's response. The guys hadn't noticed her typing quietly on the laptop. They waited a few minutes as Julia peered over her shoulder, conferring with her now and then. The laptop bleeped once and the two girls grinned excitedly.

"Six tickets to Heathrow, London, going out at 2:30pm today from Los Angeles airport, booked for us."

"Do you guys want window or aisle seats?" Julia grinned.

"How did you…where are you supposed to get the money for that?" Pete spluttered.

The girls looked sideways at each other.

"Our million-pound organisation perhaps," Claire replied, eyebrow raised. "I checked out flights coming from London as well, and the one our 'friend's' most likely on doesn't land until 3:15pm, so we're safe!"

"_All our bags are packed; we're ready to go…_" Julia sang under her breath to herself, throwing things back into the backpacks.

The band stared at them, an obvious disadvantage on their minds.

"And how are we supposed to get on the plane without passports or any other ID, and without people seeing us and recognizing us? We're gonna get caught," Pete exclaimed in a 'duh' tone, hands held out in disbelief.

"No you won't," Julia replied in the same tone, making her way to the door. "Give me 25 minutes; anything happens, call and I'll come back straight away."

She swung the door open, stuck her head out slightly to check the coast was clear and walked away without a backwards glance, pulling the door back with enough force for it to close with a quiet 'click'.

Claire carried on packing the backpacks, attending to other minor jobs as she rushed round the room. The guys sat back meekly, wondering whether or not to do something. Ten minutes later, Claire paused in what she was doing and faced them curiously.

"Can I ask, what was your favourite album you did, truthfully?"

Each of them blinked in surprise; they had all been expecting another explanation or a difficult question to answer. It took them a few minutes before they even thought about their answer. Claire had been standing patiently, still wearing the same curious expression.

"Uh…umm…I…I guess 'Folie A Deux'," Patrick replied shakily. He laughed a little in relief that it wasn't a trick question. "But…I suppose that's 'cause it's the most recent one for us and…I dunno, we probably think it's a big improvement on the other albums."

The others nodded in encouragement, also relieved that she was just curious and it didn't involve a personal quiz. She gazed back thoughtfully, nodding her head absent-mindedly.

"Hmm…yeah I thought that was really good too. It was different to 'Infinity on High' but still…I liked 'Pavlove' and 'The (Shipped) Gold Standard'...oh, and that song you did Patrick, 'Lullaby'!"

She smiled at them and carried on tidying away things, humming one of their songs quietly. They grinned at each other behind her back.

15 minutes later there was a soft tapping on the door and Claire had leapt across the room in a matter of two seconds. She glanced through the tiny round peephole before dragging the door back. Julia hurried in with a small carrier bag in tow and her skateboard under her arm.

"You're late," Claire greeted her with a smirk. Julia stuck her tongue out at her and propped her skateboard against the wall.

"Only by 10 seconds," she corrected, drawing back and raising her palms up. "Sorry Miss Perfect! It's like Abi with the damn patio slabs again!"

Claire chuckled to herself as she inspected the bag Julia had.

"Nice haul…there must be a costume shop round here or something right?"

"Yep, took me about 5 minutes to find it and ten minutes to get everything."

Julia noticed the others peering over their shoulders trying to see what it was she had bought. The two girls faced them, grinning from ear-to-ear, Julia's arms crossed.

"Well, as you helpfully pointed out, we have to get you through the airport without being noticed," Claire began. The guys were distracted enough to look away from the curious paper bag. "The only way to get to England is to not look like your selves. So…" They swung round to the bed and picked up an item each before collapsing into peals of laughter. They laughed even harder when they saw the band's shocked, horrified and slightly amused expressions as they showed off the different wigs and make-up sets they had just brought…


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"There you go matey," Julia finally exclaimed. Joe breathed out in relief but didn't want to go within a foot of the bathroom mirror. Julia had her back to him as she tidied up so when she turned back suddenly she blinked and did a double-take at the sight of Joe's face. She fought the temptation to laugh; Joe noticed this and felt even more annoyed. He folded his arms as she couldn't resist giggling a little.

"Sorry, sorry," she apologised holding her hands in the air as a sign of guilt. "But a) you look like someone completely different and b)…jeez you should see the look on your face!" She burst out laughing again as he got up to storm out the room.

"SORRY!" She smiled warmly; it was the first time any of them had seen her smile nicely at them and not look as if she wanted to hurt them. Joe blinked and sighed, sinking back onto the bath edge. She forced down another giggle and handed him the mirror. With a deep breath he looked…and looked again.

Someone entirely different stared back at him; a young guy with thick, quite long, blond hair, almost like a bowl-rim haircut on top growing into a mullet. His eyes were now a soft hazel, looking almost topaz in the light (Julia had given him the chance to put in his new contacts to his relief; she'd put in her own contacts at the same time). His face was clean shaven and Julia had applied make-up so he looked rather pale now. Julia shoved clothes in his hands and bolted out the room before he had the chance to look up or even to ask where she had got the clothes from. Apparently she'd done a bit more shopping earlier or her friend had, unnoticed by the anxious band. A few minutes later and he was in new, clean clothes. Someone stumbled past him and he nodded at them, not recognising them assuming the girls had let them in. He went to join the others who looked just as different as he did.

The first one he saw, who he eventually distinguished as Pete, was a golden, curly-haired man, light blue eyes and an even paler face than Joe; even his eyebrows were dark blond. He looked slightly nervous which for some strange reason seemed to fit his new character. The second, who was Andy, stared at him through familiar brown eyes, except for the fact he didn't have his glasses and he was clean shaven too. His new hair was black, straight and spiky on top with gel. Joe heard a noise behind him and Patrick suddenly appeared at his shoulder; in fact he was almost level with Joe now. He was wearing big clunky shoes that made him scarily taller. His skin was tanned, his hair was brown and curly, and his eyes were a dark brown, almost black.

The four looked at the two girls, Claire in the chair again and Julia leaning against the wall, as usual her arms folded. They took one look at each other before bursting into laughter at the dismal, shocked, weary expressions of the band. The guys waited in irritation as they gasped and their hysterical laughter was reduced to quiet, muffled giggling.

"Finished?" Pete snapped furiously.

Julia bit her lip and tried hard to keep back her smile.

"If you want us to carry on, I'm okay with that!" she replied quickly.

Pete's face flushed scarlet. Claire giggled and plunged her hand into her backpack; she drew out a pair of black, square glasses and threw them across the room to Pete with accurate aim. He stared at them in surprise and put them on shakily. When he looked back up he was facing the two girls and a Polaroid. There was a click, a flash of white light and Pete suddenly saw white spots everywhere. He blinked rapidly ignoring the muffled chuckles in front of him. There was another click next to him and Andy cried out in surprise. Through the ever-lasting brightness he still saw, Pete just managed to make out the dark shadow of Andy rubbing his eyes and cursing under his breath.

Luckily his vision was starting to return, everything coming back into sharp focus; by the time he could see relatively well again the girls were back by the table sorting out the photos and Patrick and Joe were rubbing their eyes too, Andy blinking manically now. Pete got up and shuffled over to the two girls, still blinking more than usual. Claire was cutting out the pictures of all four of them, a small square with just their face and shoulders visible; every time she cut one with careful precision she handed them over to Julia who was sitting hunched over the other end of the table, sliding the photos into a tiny pocket, of a laminated page in a small, strange book. Pete blinked and tore off the glasses; after she'd placed the first photo in she sealed the top of the pocket and flipped the book shut to one side. They were making fake passports for the band.

Pete opened his mouth and shut it again. There were a few questions he wanted to ask that would have some very obvious answers he assured himself. Turning away he stood by his three friends who had all got their sight back now. The four of them chatted amongst their selves whilst the girls worked busily. A few minutes later and they stood up, collected the passports and slid them into one of the bags. Shouldering them they looked up at the perplexed group before motioning for the door. Time to fly to England…

He was sitting awkwardly on the plane but he didn't care; his mind was too far away to think of his comfort. A stewardess glided past and leant in toward him, past the two empty seats. Nobody had wanted to sit next to the surly, creepy man.

"Excuse me Sir, would you like a drink or anything?" she asked the familiarly annoying question. He stared up at her, scrutinizing her face.

"When I want something, I'll ask for it."

He turned back to the window whilst the woman gaped at him. Huffing, she straightened up and strode off down to the next row behind him. But he still didn't notice anything. All that ran through his mind was the same image of the two female spies sent on this mission. And what he would do when he found them…

"Okie dokie, that's one ticket for you…"

Joe blinked and jumped back as the white thick paper ticket waved in front of his face; he'd been miles away thinking of comfy beds and guitars. He prised it gingerly out of Julia's hand and nodded at her half sullen, half enthusiastic face. She faced the others and handed out the tickets swiftly before grabbing her backpack off the floor and nodding her head at the flight attendant behind the desk. They smiled at each other before all six escapees departed through the air port, looking for their terminal that would take them to (hopefully) safety.

"This isn't gonna work," Joe hissed out of the side of his mouth to the guys. All six of them were in the L.A International airport, walking swiftly to the other side of the airport toward Gate 27. Julia and Claire kept a calm look for the sake of the guys and the suspicious travellers around them, but their eyes raked the area looking for anything out of the ordinary.

"Don't say that, I'm nervous enough as it is," Patrick replied, looking white with anxiety.

"This has to work, it has to," Andy mumbled back hysterically.

Pete clasped his hands together.

"C'mon God, give us a break!"

"It's not gonna work!"

"Stop it Joe!"

"I'm just say—"

"Well don't! It's bad enough as it is without the 'Voice of Doom' complaining in our ears!"

"Well I'm sorry if I'm the only realist around here!"

Julia whipped round angrily.

"If you boys don't stop it right now, we will turn these trolleys around and go _**straight**__…__**back**__…__**home**_! And if you make me do that, you can forget about _ever_ going to Disneyland!"

Pete and Andy shrunk back, Patrick whimpered and Joe put on a sulky face. Julia nodded and turned back.

"He started it," Patrick whined, pointing at Joe. Joe shoved him roughly.

"HEY!" Claire started. "I don't care who started it, _I'll_ finish it!"

"Please play nice children," Julia sighed, "We don't usually have a holiday, let's get through this one without arguments. Be_**fore**_we even get on the plane!"

Patrick and Joe sighed and mumbled their apologies; only then did they look at each other in bemusement. The girls had already set off again hurriedly so they followed at a quick pace. Joe leaned in toward Patrick, whispering loud enough so the others could hear him.

"Were they just talking about Disneyland?"

"Put these on."

Pete barely heard the mutter before something was shoved into his open hand. Looking down for a second he brought the pair of spectacles to his face and squinted slightly; he could've sworn Julia just laughed at him. Scowling at her, he stumbled forward to the ticket desk and presented his passport. His vision was slightly blurred with the glasses but he could still see the half-disbelieving expression on the stewardess' face as she gazed hard at the passport photo and then Pete's face. He grimaced and tried to turn it into a smile quickly. A few moments passed by before she stared hard at him one last time, punched the stamp on the passport's clean page and handed the red book back to him. Pete passed through the security gates; only then did he realize he had been holding his breath and his forehead was covered in cold sweat. Usually he would find this sort of stuff as child's play but now he was jumping at any movement or sound around him.

Just at that moment someone gripped his forearm. He swung back and tore his arm away, getting ready to punch whoever it was in front of him. Claire blinked at him and approached more delicately. Even though the sight of his new 'friend' was reassuring and calming Pete still shuddered when she touched his arm again. Gently, she took his hand in hers and pulled him forward to the doors leading on past the main airport. There was a rustle behind him and suddenly Patrick appeared on his other side, nodding his head in encouragement. Pete looked back to see the other three behind him, Julia glancing round with a frown. She nodded at Claire and marched forward, head bent. Claire motioned for the others to follow her; when they'd eventually caught up with the fast spy she pushed forward a trolley that carried several bags and an empty suitcase: a clever ploy to make people think they were going on holiday. They went down several flights of stairs before reaching a long corridor that led to the waiting room of the plane about to board. Claire lugged their baggage onto a motorised moving pathway (like an escalator the wrong way down) and clambered on with the others. The two girls did a casual 360 sweep of the perimeter, before Claire leant against the moving 'hand rail' whereas Julia swung herself up and sat comfortably on the slow walkway.

She whistled cheerfully, swinging her legs and staring into the distance. The four guys stood awkwardly wondering to their selves how the girls could stay so calm when they were going to a dangerous place for all six of them. Soon enough the walkway opened up onto a shiny marble floor. Julia jumped down and skipped over the end of the walkway, tripping over her loose shoe laces. Claire burst out laughing as Julia straightened up quickly and tried to pass it off as a purposeful fall. The others found their selves grinning and struggling not to laugh as Julia shoved Claire and ducked down to tie her…deadly laces. Claire kept up a fast stride until they reached the gate to the plane; all four guys breathed out in relief, Julia muffling her chuckle, pointing up to the sky and stating quietly 'You the man'.

The flight attendant welcomed them with a smile and tore part of their tickets off before waving them through.

"You're just in time," he warned them, "The plane's just about to take off."

Claire thanked him and hurried into the long corridor toward the plane. Julia waited until the door was closed behind them before jumping in the air and kicking her heels together to one side.

"YAHOOOO!"

"JULIA! Shut up!"

Claire backhanded her upper arm as she landed somewhat gracefully again. She grinned back.

"Dude," Julia exclaimed, "The flight's leaving early. Our job just got easier, and we're going back home again!"

She whooped again before skipping and twirling down the corridor singing loudly,

"_I ran all the way ho-o-o-o-me…just to say I'm sorre-e-e-e-e-e!_"

Claire slapped her hand against her forehead.

"Every time we're boarding, _why_ do I let her drink coffee!"

Patrick burst out laughing and nudged her elbow.

"Awww, c'mon! It's cute!" He smiled and gestured toward the still singing and dancing, crazy Julia. "It's like giving a little kid a puppy for Christmas."

"Or giving a strange girl spy caffeine before boarding a long flight," Joe cut in with a smirk.

"_We-e-e-e-e-e-e're OFF to see the wizard! The wonderful wizard of Oz!_" Julia gabbled in the distance.

Claire breathed in and out slowly, fighting the impulse to laugh at her deranged friend. Patrick laughed again and put his arm over her shoulder. Blushing, she lowered her head and mumbled incoherent words. Julia skipped up again joyfully.

"You alright Lobster face?"

Claire's head whipped up again and she lunged at Julia, who stepped back with a giggle and immediately began twirling down the corridor. Claire slapped her forehead again.

"Stupid caffeine…"

Patrick laughed and replaced his arm over her shoulder.

The others chuckled at Julia, suddenly relaxed at the random and happy vibes that emitted from her. Sprinting back to the five normal people, she grabbed Joe's hands and dragged him forward. Stumbling he began to protest when he thought about it; why the hell not? With that in mind, he chuckled at the happy spy and skipped, jumped and whirled next to her. Pete and Andy laughed hysterically at their little capers. Claire and Patrick nearly fell over with laughter when the two random dancers linked arms, twirled twice and swapped arms, singing loudly and slightly off-key, '_If it hadn't been for Cotton-eye Jo-o-o-e, I'd have been married a long time ago!_". Unfortunately for them their fun minute ended when they rounded the corner and faced the door to the plane, the sound of the engine echoing around them. The band became serious again and their faces took on the almost-familiar nervous, paranoid expression; Claire forced a grin on her face and Julia frowned, her hands curling into fists instinctively.

They were met at the doors by two stewardesses and a co-pilot who smiled at them automatically and returned to their jobs when the pilot's voice sounded over the intercom. Searching for their seats, Claire took the right side and motioned for Andy and Patrick to go in the two vacant seats, with Julia behind her pushing Pete and Joe in quickly. The two sat down at the same time and Pete couldn't help but chuckle; they were so co-ordinated with each others' moves yet they took a comic approach to everything. The plane door shut with a thud; Julia's hand gripped the arm of her chair and she sank lower into her seat. Claire glanced at her and up and down the aisle. Joe nudged her.

"What's up?"

She sighed heavily, her bottom lip jutting out slightly.

"I wanted a window seat…"

She sighed and tried to keep the humorous grin off her face as Joe rolled his eyes. The pilot finally finished his safety speech and the intercom crackled off; the stewards and stewardesses took their seats at the front and back of the plane as the engine noise grew louder and louder. Across the aisle Claire was humming to lighten the mood of the twitchy, anxious singer next to her. Patrick stared at her at the same time as she stared at him; and at the same moment they blushed and turned away.

The plane roared to life and suddenly the outside view began to wobble and move backward as the great machine rolled its way to the runway. Pete clasped his hands together, the nails digging into his palms. It wasn't until Julia poked him gently that he realised this; his nails had made angry red, crescent shaped marks on the inside of his hand. He nodded at her in thanks and flexed his fingers to get the feeling back in them. The runway appeared on either side of the plane, moving backward faster and faster as they gathered more speed. The engine built up more deafening noise as the plane prepared to take off. Joe sucked in his breath and gripped something hard, refusing to let go. It was only when he looked down he saw he was crushing Julia's left hand. He pulled away quickly like he'd been burnt and stared at the floor, avoiding her questioning look.

"If you were worried about breaking my hand, don't worry it's used to it now," she joked quietly. A small smile flitted across his face.

"It's just…" He sighed. "It's just I don't want to leave here, but if we stay we'll be caught again."

He leant back whilst Julia stared at the chair in front of her, day-dreaming.

"It's like we're knocking on Death's door," he grumbled.

Julia nodded in reply.

"Yeah…'cept we don't knock on his door; we knock and run like hell!" She grinned at his puzzled and amused face. "He absolutely hates it."

He laughed as the window view tilted and the plane ascended slowly and gracefully into the air…


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"Well that was a joyful flight," Pete muttered moodily as they exited through the terminal gate. The first to greet them as they had landed in England was the sight of the bright, golden sun making its slow journey to the top of the orangey sky; shadows had been thrown into contrast and the whole air port had been lit up spectacularly. The band however hadn't really noticed or cared about whether it was a 'picture-moment' or not. Julia and Claire on the contrary had been positively delighted to be back in their home island, Julia announcing that she was 'so happy to be back she had even missed the rain almost'.

"Aw, c'mon guys!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

Patrick yawned, his face white and drawn.

"What's the time?" he mumbled, his words slurring into each other.

Claire and Julia looked at each other trying to figure out what it was he was saying. Claire's face cleared.

"Oh! It's umm…" she flicked her wrist up to see the watch hanging limply there. "Just gone 8:45am."

The guys groaned loudly; Julia giggled.

"You're a right bunch of happy chappies!" she commented sarcastically.

They couldn't even be bothered to give her an irritated look; instead they followed the two spies who, once again, were moving at a hyperactive speed. Passing through a pair of doors, they found their selves in the baggage claim room. The band shuffled forward wearily; they had only taken about five steps when the girls darted back from the conveyer belt with their backpacks in tow. Now they had everything necessary it was time to face the outside world. A freezing blast of wind whipped around them; the guys' eyes widened and their teeth began chattering. If they were struggling to stay awake, this was definitely their wake up call.

"Sheesh!" Pete exclaimed wrapping his arms around himself. "What is it with the freakin' English weather?"

He frowned at the girls who stood to one side, perfectly composed compared to the band. Claire struggled not to laugh as Julia grinned infuriatingly. Pete's brow furrowed more.

"How can you _not_ be cold?" he demanded through gritted teeth.

"Because we're English and we're used to it. We've had 19 years practise of this weather," Julia answered in an obvious tone, sneaking a sideways look at Claire one eyebrow raised.

Pete ground his teeth and turned away to stop himself swearing at them. Andy tried talking through his rapidly chattering teeth.

"W-w-where…ar-r-e we…g-g-g-going-g…n-now?"

Julia burst out laughing. Claire smiled at him sympathetically.

"We're always prepared for this; we have a vehicle round the back of the air port, hidden in a woody area."

It wasn't until she'd stopped talking that they all realized Julia had wandered off on her own again. For the first time though none of the band were bewildered; they were getting used to the spontaneous, random ways by which the girls worked. Claire gestured for them to follow the distant girl, keeping close at the back on the look-out.

The six travelled round a hidden pathway that would be invisible to anyone unless they came right up to it. Along this they went until they reached the back of the air port, the furthest end to the runways and deafening planes. The guys couldn't see anything at first; then suddenly the wind blew the tops of some trees to one side allowing the sun to pass through. The rays shone down and illuminated a large van parked on a grassy area, Julia leaning against the side happily. As they approached the blinding light disappeared again and they could see the vehicle clearer; it was a jet-black, huge 80's camper van, but the black was hardly visible on the sides as the sliding doors were covered in numerous, bright pictures of all sorts of things. There were only the front windows, the side windows pulled out and replaced with more black metal, and the remaining windows were tinted black also.

Joe whistled.

"This is your transport?"

Julia nodded enthusiastically.

"My first van," she proudly stated, patting the door. "I was over the moon when I found it. Got a whole new paint job with my savings too; mum wasn't too happy about that, but when I bought it, it was a faded pink. _Pink_! I mean, what, she expects me to drive around in a pink van? I've hated pink since I was three…" She ranted on as she unlocked the van and pulled the door open. Inside she had done a complete 'changing rooms'; there were more paintings on the inside structure, the front seats black and cushiony. There was a flip-down T.V in one side, a black, long, oblong bean bag propped against the opposite door, a small desk on which sat a Macbook and a small stereo with a small CD rack sitting next to it, chock-a-block with different CD's in and out of their cases. Claire herded the band in and they discovered a black rug with red splatters on the floor, and right at the back there was a single, made bed and a small armchair sitting next to it. Next to the bed on the van floor stood a miniature cupboard and a mini-fridge; Claire opened the fridge and handed out bottles of chilled water to the band and two cans of Diet Coke for herself and Julia.

Julia held out her hands expectantly.

"Home sweet hippy van," she proclaimed.

Claire rolled her eyes at her and clambered over to the front seats.

"Who's driving, you or me? 'Cause if it's you I think I'd like to live to see tomorrow," Claire called back sarcastically.

Julia stuck her tongue out at her back.

"You guys can rest back there while we're driving, we're gonna be a long time on the road," she yelled to the nervous, waiting band. They looked at their surroundings, prompted by the two girls who pointed at the bed, bean bag and armchair. Julia tried climbing into the driver's seat, instead sprawling on the seat, head stuck near the brake and gas pedal. Claire sighed with a smile as she righted herself with difficulty.

Pete sat in the armchair, thought about it and instead lay across it, his legs swinging over one side; he plumped up a cushion and leant his head against the back of the chair, preparing for a long sleep. Andy sank down onto the bean bag and instantly made himself comfortable getting ready to have a kip. Patrick and Joe looked at each other before rushing for the bed, pushing each other back desperately; Joe did a little victory wave of his hands and curled up under the duvet as Patrick glared at him from the floor of the van. Standing up, he brushed down his jeans and sat on the end of the bed, leaning against the van's back. Joe gave him a look.

"Don't sit on my legs that's all I ask," He grinned and chucked a pillow to Patrick who swung it at Joe's head before placing it behind his head.

Pete suddenly sat up and stared disbelievingly at his friends.

"I've just realized we still have all this crap on!" he cried, gesturing toward his wig with disgust. They all stared at each other when there was the unmistakeable sound of someone smothering their giggles in the front seat. The guys stared at the girls' backs stonily. They turned in their seats to look back innocently.

"You could've told us you know," Pete grumbled, tearing off his wig, fake eyebrows and rubbing his face. "Save us looking like a bunch of dumbasses."

A towel flew through the air and collided with his face. Claire burst out laughing.

"Well we would of…we _could_ have…but where's the fun in that?" Julia replied with a grin. "If we had told you that you looked like a bunch of wallies, then we wouldn't have seen your faces when you did eventually realize."

"So we're just your personal humour?" Joe questioned jokily, taking the towel from Pete and rubbing the make-up off. "We have to be tortured and humiliated by you girls just so you can have a few laughs?"

"Yeah that's pretty much it in a nutshell."

Joe raised an eyebrow and smiled. Julia grinned back cheekily and spun round to the steering wheel again, passing Andy his familiar glasses.

Patrick wiped the tan face paint off and yanked the wig off his head, shaking his hair out and securing a hat on top. Claire grinned shyly.

"I gotta say you look a helluva lot better without all that stuff Ri-…err, Patrick," she admitted timidly. He looked up at her and grinned shyly back. Her face turned red and she swung back round hurriedly. Patrick cleared his throat and fidgeted with his pillow. Pete stared at him curiously.

"You've gone red Lunchbox," he said slowly with an all-knowing smile.

Patrick blushed more and shrugged.

"It's just from rubbing that stuff off," he replied haughtily. Pete shrugged and grinned infuriatingly again.

"Can we get a little shut-eye, _please_?" Andy grumbled sleepily. The other three sighed and made their selves comfortable again before Julia twisted the keys in the ignition and revved up the engine.

"Pedal to the metal," she called joyfully.

They groaned sleepily back at her…

"_What d'you mean they're gone?_" he screamed at the guard, clutching his t-shirt and slamming him against a hard brick wall. The guard's bottom lip trembled.

"W-well we weren't expecting p-people to come a-…and…break them out," he stammered, trying desperately to avoid the Boss's livid, piercing glare. The man growled in his throat and slammed the tall guard against the wall roughly, dropping him like a piece of trash. He spun round to face the eleven other cowering, heavy-built men. Closing his eyes, he breathed in patiently with difficulty and opened his eyes.

"I give you one simple task," he stated in a quiet, deadly voice. "Twelve of you, four of them; in a room secured with dead-bolts, covered by guns. _And they escaped? And by two teenage __**girls**__._"

"We didn't realize they were there, Sir!" one terrified man gabbled swiftly trying to smooth over the situation; instead he was making so much worse. "We…we had no idea they would come here. We didn't even know they knew where we were! If we had known then we…wo-…"

He stopped dead and shook under the Boss's murderous look.

The Ringleader twisted sharply on his heels, hissed a swear word at his clumsy henchmen and pulled out his mobile phone with a flourish. Pressing a number, the speed-dial tone sounded out as he brought the phone up to his ear. Someone answered after the first ring, obviously not wanting to keep their Boss waiting.

"I need a plane ticket to Heathrow London right away," he commanded loudly, trying to simmer down the boiling rage within him. "I need to return straight away. Get any information on these two girls…ANY information! It's time to end this once and for all."

He clicked the end call button whilst the man on the other end burbled erratically. Glaring at his humiliated and furious henchmen he turned on his heel and strode down the exit corridor…

Patrick stirred in his sleep and tried to open his eyes; he was so tired they ached, so instead he gave up and snuggled down under an apparent duvet. He was already quite warm but his back and part of his stomach were even hotter than the rest of his body. He frowned and wriggled a little to get comfy; that was when he heard the muffled snorts of laughter. He forced his eyes open and squinted blearily. The shape of two tall, shadowy figures loomed over him. As his eyes became accustomed to the light he recognized the smirking faces of Claire and Julia. He groaned and tried to shift over but something was blocking him. Claire giggled again and Julia grinned from ear-to-ear.

"Wow, I thought it was only in the '_This Aint A Scene'_ video," Julia admitted to Claire sarcastically. "I didn't know they actually _spooned_ in real life!"

Patrick's eyes opened wider as he suddenly realized something strange: his vision was horizontal. He twisted round to see Joe snoring gently next to him. Shrieking, he broke free of Joe's 'cuddly' grasp, waking him in the process.

"Wha…" Joe muttered as Patrick slapped his hand away, scowled heavily and folded his arms, glaring at the girls who were collapsing with hysterical laughter.

Pete sat bolt upright and stared around half asleep and half alert. Andy woke with a loud snore and twisted round with difficulty to investigate what was happening. The girls carried on chuckling wiping tears from their eyes, every so often calming down slightly; every time this happened though they took one look at the disgruntled Patrick and the dozy Joe and cracked up all over again. Patrick stared at them as if he wanted to knock their heads together.

"Finished yet?" he snapped irritated.

Claire struggled to keep a straight face as Julia wandered to the front of the van so as to laugh the rest of it off.

"We umm…" she giggled and bit her lip at the look on Patrick's face. "We were about to wake you guys up actually."

"How come?" Pete broke in.

Claire smiled enthusiastically at him.

"We're here!"


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"Soooo…this is where we're staying?" Pete asked disbelievingly.

Julia scrutinized him from under her fringe.

"What's wrong with it?" she enquired stonily, daring him to answer that; if he did he was most likely to wake up in a shark tank. He opened his mouth, shrugged and smiled nervously. Joe blinked rapidly as they stared at the outside of the house in front of them with interest; it wasn't a large house nor was it a 'box' house. The outside paint was white and gleaming, obviously freshly new. The front of the house held a large window on the bottom half, another large window and a small window on the second floor and a skylight in the roof. The front garden was gone, instead filled with large pebbles and two short, white peeling walls. Claire was walking along one of these now, balancing perfectly and tip-toeing along. Julia blew a raspberry at her.

"Show-off," she cat-called. Claire stuck her tongue out at her.

Julia skipped along the patio, most of the black and white patterned stone slabs missing or in the wrong places. The reddy-brown door was slightly welcoming, with a lion head knocker and the numbers '66' nailed into the top.

"We still have to do up the patio but we just repainted the outside of the house," Julia explained to the nervous band. "And don't worry; mum doesn't bite…usually…" She grinned to herself and Claire as the band looked at each other anxiously. Slotting a golden key into the lock, she twisted several times, cursing the 'damn, stupid, old lock' under her breath before the door swung open slowly. Pushing the door the rest of the way she waltzed in and waited until everyone was in the long hallway; however with six people in there it did feel quite cramped. Andy leant against the left wall and touched something freezing cold. He jumped and yelped quietly. Julia turned and Claire held up her fists. Andy blushed and mumbled an apology as he realized it was a radiator; the girls rolled their eyes and his friends chuckled. Julia pushed the door shut with difficulty, blocking out the bright sun. As she twisted round to try and face the right way she came face to face with Joe. They both flushed red and muttered 'sorry'. Joe twisted slightly to move out of her way and she slipped past him, just brushing past his arm.

She ducked ahead and eventually came across a dark, wooden door to her left and a wooden door in front. Leaning against the left-side door, she drew back and threw her whole weight against the door. Patrick jumped back and clutched someone's shoulder in shock as Julia went flying from view.

"Errm…" uttered a voice below him. Glancing down he realized he was crushing Claire's shoulder. She raised her eyebrows and smiled pointedly; stuttering an apology he dropped her shoulder and stared at the floor in embarrassment.

"I'm okay!" Julia called, leaping back into view with a vacant, humorous smile. Joe chuckled.

"C'mon in, here be the house of Julia of Skart!" she commentated jokily. As the guys wandered through the door they entered into a large room occupied by a long dining table, two large cupboard (one piled high on top with stacks of books) a towering book case, a newish desk with a small computer and printer, a squashy, slightly sunken sofa, a large glass panel to the right of them (like an indoors window)…and a woman sitting at the dining room with a paper and cup of coffee, who stared back with curiosity. She was about in her forties or fifties, with short brown hair in a pony-tail. She had the same green eyes as Julia and the same vacant expression. She wore jeans and a green, thick jumper, with brown, heeled boots.

"Hallo," she welcomed surprised. "How many more of these have you got Julia?"

"Including the ones trapped under the stairs?"

"Aha, no they are _my_ friends you fool!"

Julia laughed.

"You haven't got any friends mum!" she replied laughing.

"More than you have," her mother mumbled loudly.

Julia grinned.

"You'll have to excuse her," she explained in a low, soft voice to the others. "We took her out of the hospital for a day trip."

The guys blinked with wide eyes and stared at her and her mum. They and Claire all looked at each other in disbelief before the two girls started laughing at Julia's mum who held her daughters hand and hugged it.

"Can I stay out all day?" she joked with them.

Julia slapped her hand against her forehead.

"You're a menace woman!"

The band cracked up at the sight of the cowering woman and the humiliated daughter. Julia grinned and suddenly remembered Fall Out Boy standing behind her.

"Oh, mum this is Fall Out Boy," she introduced causally, even though her ears went slightly pink. "Joe, Patrick, Pete and Andy," she continued indicating each member. They waved back politely.

Her mum looked up in astonishment.

"Oh my…" she eventually uttered. "All those years you said you were going to kidnap them, I didn't actually think you would Julia!"

The band laughed at the girl who blushed violently and at the irony of the whole 'kidnapping' thing.

"Thanks mum," she sighed sarcastically, folding her arms in her annoyingly familiar way. "I really needed that. You bloody nuisance…"

As they started out the dining room Julia's mum called out playfully "Meh!"

Claire giggled as Julia rolled her eyes. They came out through a door with glass panels and entered into a largish, bright yellow room; there were three comfy looking sofas in here, 3 more large bookcases crammed with different books and pictures hung along all the walls. There was a large window at the far end next to one of the cases and on the other side of the room was another wooden door.

"You know where all the drinks in the kitchen are, right? I just need to get stuffs from the ol' room of mine," she said to Claire pointing in the direction of the mystery door and rooms beyond. Claire nodded and started toward it; Julia gestured toward the sofas meaning the band was allowed to sit down and make their selves at home.

Joe took to the sofa nearest a small TV and bookcase filled with videos and DVDs, Pete and Andy slumped back against the furthest sofa and Patrick too to the squashy sofa nearest the dining room, covered in a white overthrow. There came the sound of a kettle switch being flicked on whilst Julia galloped up the stairs two at a time, falling on several occasions and cursing. Claire came back into the room, took one look at the different sofas, blinked at Patrick and sat next to him. Claire glanced round the room with fake interest while Patrick twiddled his thumbs embarrassed. Pete, Andy and Joe swapped looks and tried not to crack up at the sight of the rigid, embarrassed couple. The kettle switch clicked again and Claire jumped up in relief; she hurriedly asked them what they wanted to drink and went back into the kitchen. The moment she was gone through the door Patrick suddenly realized he'd been holding his breath. He breathed out trying to be inconspicuous.

Suddenly there was a crashing din above their heads; all the guys jumped up in an instant expecting gun shots and the evil guys back again.

"JULIA!" Julia's mother was suddenly at the foot of the steep, green-carpeted stairs, staring up with a frown. There was a silent pause.

"Yes?" Julia's uncertain voice echoed down.

"What the hell are you doing up there?"

"…Nothing…honest."

Her mum sighed and returned back to her newspaper in surrender.

"What's going on?" called Claire from the other room.

"Err…I think Julia fell…or dropped something," Pete called shakily; they were trying not to chuckle at the blatant lies Julia told.

"Not again…" Claire sighed. "Can you go and check on her please? Knowing her she's probably dropped something off the roof and she's now attempting to get it back even if it means breaking her neck."

The guys looked at each other expectantly. Joe sighed irritably and pushed himself up into an upright position. Swinging round on the banister, Joe slowly made his way up the stairs. Once at the top he had two options: to the right he could go up another flight of stairs or through a door holding a rack filled to the brim with fancy shoes. To the left there was a long corridor, curving round a corner and leading off to somewhere else. Joe set off down the corridor and reached a door in front and a door to the left. The door to his left held a poster of a rabbit and the name of a band perhaps, 'The Hoosiers'. There was strained swearing coming from in this room, with the occasional 'Oh no, oh no, not again!' Joe shook his head, turned the door handle and entered through.

The sunlight streamed in through a small window hanging next to a large bookcase and behind a tiny wooden desk. There was a tall shelf filled with different things, two shelves in particular holding what seemed hundreds of 'Kerrang!' and 'Rock Sound' magazines, the other shelf struggling to hold up the enormous amount of art materials. A keyboard sat across the fireplace, a bunk bed behind the art and magazine shelf. Next to this stood another sturdy shelf filled with numerous, strange boxes. It was in front of this that he found Julia struggling to hold up three boxes at once, a broken cardboard box lying at her feet, its contents spilled across the dark blue carpet. She swore loudly again as the boxes attempted to slip past her and join their friend on the floor. Joe shook his head again when he suddenly noticed yet another heavy-looking box sliding slyly toward the edge of the shelf and Julia's head. He rushed forward and grabbed a hold of it, startling Julia who nearly let go of all the boxes in her hand in shock.

"Thanks," she muttered through gritted teeth.

Joe nodded in bemusement; the box was probably one of the heaviest things he had ever held in his life!

"What kind of heavy crap are you keeping in these?" he cried out loud by accident; that had meant to be a thought not said out loud. He flushed scarlet as she threw a sharp look in his direction.

"Can we just get these back up so we can live to see tomorrow," she snapped. He scowled at her and she frowned back. He shifted his box and took a hold of one of Julia's for her. With difficulty she shoved one of her other boxes back.

"Sheesh this is a workout," Joe muttered under his breath.

"Keep your thoughts to yourself," Julia ordered irritated.

Joe glared at her back.

"Sorry, next time a goddamn box looks like it's about to crush you I'll step back and let you deal with it!"

Julia stopped dead, kept a hand on her remaining box and swivelled round angrily.

"F.Y.I, I would've been fine," she responded furiously. "I didn't ask you to come up here. What're you doing in here anyway? I mean jeez, you guys can't stay in one place and out of trouble for more than five minutes can you?"

Joe glared back stonily.

"F.Y.I," he started sarcastically; she growled low in her throat. "Claire told one of us to come up and help you, which I did. Now I'm starting to regret it if you're gonna be so stressy!"

"Well if you regret it so much then why don't you just get out and leave me to do it when I was fine by myself. You know where the door is."

"Oh yeah right, you fall down half the time and you expect to stack all these stupid things back again without losing _any_ brain function. If you could anyway, that'd be great to know you actually have a brain to knock out!"

"Oh I'm surprised you came up with that _original_ insult with _your_ 'brain'."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know what it means; even you can figure that out."

"What is your freakin' problem?"

"What's yours?"

Joe took a deep breath and tried to calm down. They had been so into their heated argument they were standing against each other angrily, Julia staring up at him defiantly. She blinked and looked away.

"Let's just clear these away and head back downstairs," she suggested in a calm, quiet voice. Joe refrained from sighing and shoved one of his boxes back. Together they shoved the remaining ripping boxes back before looking at each other in awkward embarrassment.

"Umm-…," Joe began.

"Let's go," Julia sighed, brushing past him on her way out her old bedroom.

He stared after her disbelievingly and then smiled to himself before following her out the door.

Patrick fidgeted. He sighed and blew up at his fringe in awkwardness. Pete and Andy looked sideways and covered their mouths to hide the chuckles they were emitting. Patrick searched round the room lazily before staring at his shoes. There was the distant sound of Joe and Julia arguing above their heads; Patrick sighed and stood up with a flourish. Pete looked at him questioningly. Patrick shrugged and pointed toward the door next to Pete and Andy's sofa.

"I'm just gonna…umm, y'know…go help Claire," He tried hard not to stammer and sound like a moron but he couldn't stop himself walking into the arm of the sofa. Andy turned away as Pete rolled his eyes.

"Go get her dude," he said shakily.

Andy turned his head slightly and suppressed another snort of laughter. Patrick rolled his eyes and wandered through the door, through a brightly, orange room with a huge cabinet and small table, and into the kitchen where Claire rushed round in a desperate attempt to get their drinks perfect and in on time. The kitchen was quite small and cramped with several worktops on either side.

Claire opened a fridge behind her and replaced several bottles; closing it she looked up at Patrick who stood nervously and tensely in the door frame. He smiled shyly and nodded his head at her. She smiled back and returned to the numerous drinks on the counter top. Patrick wandered through and stood behind her; she carried on with making the drinks but her back and shoulders stiffened as she sensed him behind her.

"Umm," he started, "anything I can do for you…to help…if you need it…the help I mean."

Claire covered up a smile as Patrick closed his eyes in irritation, shook his head and mouthed 'stupid' to himself. Claire swivelled round.

"Well, can you help me take out the drinks please?" she responded. Patrick straightened up, smiled bravely and reached for a Bart Simpson mug in front of him. Claire, who was facing the other way to check everything was tidied away reached for the same mug at the same time; Patrick's hand gripped round the handle as Claire's closed round his wrist. Her head whipped round and she drew her hand back swiftly. Mumbling, she picked up two other mugs and glided out of the kitchen, head bent to hide her glowing red face. Patrick stared after her and chuckled to himself.

He carried two mugs out with him and walked back into the yellow sitting room; Claire darted past to retrieve the last of the mugs and kept her head down. Julia and Joe had joined them, both on the sofa near the TV with the girl on the arm of the sofa and Joe looking up at her vacantly grinning to himself. Julia talked animatedly about a past embarrassing experience they had encountered on one of their missions. Patrick sat back down on the white sofa and listened to the girl's enthusiastic gabble. She talked rapidly and suddenly motioned wildly with her arms to represent an explosion. She wobbled dangerously and tried to balance herself. All four guys sat up straighter as she leaned dangerously forward before her almost non-existent balance decided to propel her backward. She had time to squeak before she fell onto the sofa and onto Joe's lap. Ahem. Claire came through and stared at the horrified and humiliated couple before bursting into laughter. Julia stared up at Joe in puzzlement as he looked back down awkwardly.

Julia leapt back up again and rolled off the sofa simultaneously and stood aimlessly in the centre of the room trying to say something, anything, to make this situation disappear. Joe stared at his shoes determinedly; the others laughed their selves senselessly in the background. Julia cleared her throat, grabbed her mug, excused herself with a mumble and drifted into the dining room so as to escape the horror of what had just happened. Through the glass panel all five could see her clearly; her mother was staring at her anxiously as she propped her elbows on the wooden table and buried her face in her hands. Joe cleared his throat as the others turned their smirking attentions to him.

"I didn't know people went that red," Pete wondered aloud sarcastically. Joe swore at him, basically telling him to 'go away'.

Claire giggled and drank her drink slowly; Andy, Joe and Pete copied her whilst Patrick sat back and waited for his hiccups to stop. Five minutes later Julia came back through bashfully and leant against the stairs banister, far away from anyone. Claire and Patrick looked at each other privately and had to stop their selves from cracking up all over again. Pete broke the silence by asking the girls about other missions they had accomplished in the past. Claire spoke first eventually joined by a recovered Julia. For the next ten minutes they all chatted like old friends before Andy stared down at his empty mug. Claire noticed and stared at her own with a sigh.

"Well, we'd better get going," she announced reluctantly. "We still have to stop by my house and then we've got to find a place to stay."

The others sighed and started getting up; Julia was already racing round the room collecting mugs, never making eye contact in case she was still bright red. Running out to the kitchen, the guys had enough time to shrug their jackets back on before Julia bobbed back into view. The two girls raced each other to the dining room door, laughing and pushing the other one back. Through the dining room they ventured, said 'goodbye' and 'thanks' to Julia's mother. Julia kneeled down to give her a hug and Claire couldn't stop herself from going 'Awww'. The two relatives looked up in mock disgust. Grabbing her jacket, Julia waved sadly to her mother and exited out the house with her best friend and co.

"One down, one to go," Julia hissed out the side of her mouth to Claire. "Meet the parents."

"Oh God, don't put it like that!"

"Don't worry, you can play Ben Stiller; you've got the looks."

Julia grinned mischievously and dodged out the way of Claire's oncoming attack before leaping headfirst into her van and quickly starting the engine up.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"Second stop!" Julia called back to the comfortable band. Claire jigged about in her seat, ecstatic to be going back home. Julia rolled her eyes at her enthusiastic friend.

"Are you excited?" she asked in a baby voice. "We'll get you an ice cream later yeah? And a teddy bear, but only if you're good and stay in sight."

Claire looked at her sideways annoyed. Soon enough, Julia pulled up outside a small, cosy looking house near the end of a cul-de-sac. She threw open her door, jumped out and strode to the back doors to free the band; Claire almost fell out her side and hopped keenly to the door of her old home. Pulling her key out she hurriedly slotted it in and waited by the open door; she was soon joined by the five others, giving her the opportunity to jump in her house.

"That's not what I'm like on caffeine is it?" Julia asked out the corner of her mouth to Andy. He grinned back and stifled a chuckle. Everyone followed Claire into the front hall of her house; there was an open door to their left showing a computer, a door to the right which the band didn't know led to and a flight of stairs that broke off in opposite directions at the top. Claire hopped around again and directed them into the room with the computer. As they entered, the band saw the large TV, bright wallpaper and large squashy sofa with an armchair facing it from the other side of the living-room. Claire waited until they all sat down before rushing out the room again at break-neck speed. The band tried not to notice but it still astonished them that these girls could move so quickly.

"Mum, hi!" came a loud, happy yell from the other room.

"Hey Mrs C!" Julia shouted across from a chair in front of the computer.

The guys glanced at each other and shrugged as Claire entered again with a woman almost as tall as her daughter who had a striking resemblance to Claire.

"Guys, this is my mum Kathy," Claire introduced joyfully. She waved vaguely at the band in front of her. "Mum this is…um…" she hesitated and blushed slightly. "Fall Out Boy." Her voice broke on the last note as her mother's eyes widened. The guys stood up cautiously and wandered forward to shake her hand.

"Wow all these years…" her mum responded thoughtfully in shock. "I didn't think you would actually kidna—"

"MUM! Um…yeah, they don't need to hear that really." She forced a nervous giggle before sucking in a deep breath and bolting from the room. Julia and Claire's mum swapped sheepish smiles before Kathy went back out again.

"Do you guys want anything?" she called back through.

Julia looked expectantly at the four.

"Err, I'm good thanks."

"Me too."

"I'm good for now."

"I'm good too."

Julia shrugged and stood up, arms folded.

"Well if you guys don't mind I'm gonna go get a drink and see if Kathy needs any help. DON'T move."

The guys stared at her indignantly as she sauntered out the room. Pete shook his head.

"We're not two year olds. I don't know why you like her Joe," he mumbled, stifling a chuckle.

Joe glared at him, reached behind his head and slapped it hard. Pete smacked his hand back and they broke out in playful 'fisticuffs'. Andy and Patrick shifted away from the fight and rolled their eyes.

"Yeah, you're _**really **_not like a two year old in the slightest," Patrick muttered.

"Julia?" The faint yell from above their heads startled them until they realized it was just Claire calling for her friend.

"Julia? JULIA!"

There was the sound of a door being opened and padding footsteps.

"Julia?" Claire sighed. "Where is she...she's always gone somewhere…"

Her voice trailed off as she re-entered the room she'd left and the door shut with a snap. The guys looked at each other.

"Should we go get Julia?" Andy pondered aloud.

"Or go help Claire. Julia will only get annoyed if we move," Pete replied, frowning.

They looked at each other before Patrick found all three looking at him. His brow furrowed slightly as he jumped to his feet and departed the room; the others tried valiantly to muffle their laughter at his expression.

Patrick managed to refrain from slamming the door on his friends' giggling…just. The door on the right was still closed although there was the sound of a kettle steaming away, clinking mugs and the sound of chattering. Sweeping a glance up the stairs, Patrick breathed out calmly and began to ascend slowly. As soon as he got to the top, he debated which way to go when he noticed a door on the left side of the stairs; the door had small post-it notes and pieces of colourful paper. The door was already open and as Patrick drew closer, the barest flash of brown hair flickered past the gap of the open door. Patrick nodded his head and rapped twice on the wooden door. There was a silent pause before the door opened slowly with a low creaking sound. A pair of blue eyes stared up at Patrick; he stared back awkwardly.

"Ummm…" He grimaced and shrugged shyly. "You called for Julia but she's busy so…I thought…maybe, I could help…if you want?"

Claire blinked up at him before making the gap between the door and its frame wider. Patrick entered and smiled at Claire; automatically she faced the other way in case she was stupidly blushing again.

"So, what do you want me to do then?" Patrick rung his hands together and stared round the small room; a large desk took up most of the left wall, holding up a large T.V, a laptop and numerous pieces of paper and sticky notes. Behind the door a large whiteboard stuck to the wall loyally, refusing to budge. On the other side was a strange, huge, wooden box-like object, almost completely covered by a large collection of posters, magazine and newspaper cuttings and printed pictures of Claire's laptop. Patrick opened his mouth to question about it but thought better and closed it again.

Claire scurried under her desk and dragged out two plastic boxes containing even more objects from her childhood.

"You wouldn't mind helping me find my laptop cable and lucky cap would you?" she questioned Patrick innocently.

He nodded enthusiastically and proceeded to drag out the second box next to her. The two began rootling around and searching the room from top to bottom. After about five minutes Claire stopped dead and stared round at the strange box thing that stood against the right wall.

"Of course, it would be in there!" she muttered irritated.

She strode over to the huge box, clung to the top and tried to pull whatever it was down. Patrick stood back wondering to himself what the heck it was and whether or not he should help. As he contemplated helping, one of the magazine pages slipped off the blutack that had helped secure it and floated gently to the floor. Claire strained against the box and narrowly dodged treading on the page and crumpling it.

Patrick sank down and reached out to pick it up; turning the page over he blinked as he found himself staring at a picture of himself and Pete.

"Oh Jeez, I look so bad in this picture…"

Claire panted and glanced down.

"The picture with you and Pete?"

"Yeah, oh man I didn't know I looked this bad in pictures!"

Claire stopped and raised an eyebrow. "What? Don't be mad you look great in your pictures, all of them. And that one you look really cute in it. That's one of my fa-…"

She stopped, cleared her throat and turned back to the now half-concealed bed she was attempting to pull down; she stared into space with flushed cheeks and tried to gather her thoughts again as Patrick cleared his own throat.

He was about to stand back up again when there was a loud creaking sound; Claire had managed to pull whatever it was down. Thing is, she didn't know Patrick was in the way.

He had enough time to lift his head slightly at the noise before something smashed into the top of his head with surprising force. He fell to his knees again, his hat flying off to one side, clutching the back of his head and swearing impressively. Claire's hands flew to her mouth and her eyes widened at the sight of the writhing Patrick.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed in shock and guilt. "Are you okay? Oh my God, I didn't know you were there, I'm so so so sorry Patrick! Oh jeez, I'm so sorry Patrick, I would never have done that, I was just trying to get the damn thing down and it suddenly fell and I couldn't keep hold of it…never mind that, is your head okay? I'm so sorry!"

Patrick staggered to his feet and swayed slightly, keeping his hand over the part of his head that had been hit. Under his hand, he had the suspicious feeling a massive, very noticeable bump was going to appear soon. He tried to smile at Claire encouragingly.

"I'm fine seriously." He tried to reason with her, holding up his free hand to show it was nothing. "Don't worry, it wasn't your fault, I'm okay."

Claire looked like she was about to cry from the guilt; Patrick took her hand and squeezed it.

"I'm fine," he whispered determinedly.

She blinked rapidly to stop herself from bursting into tears and nodded, her eyes flicking from his calm face to his injured head where his hand covered the alarmingly, fast growing bump.

Patrick loosened his grip and her hand swung out of his. He looked down momentarily and squeezed his eyes shut trying valiantly to decrease the pain that was running through his head; all he could think of was 'ow ow ow ow'.

"I'm really sorry Patrick," she apologised for the umpteenth time. Patrick shook his head, eyes still closed.

"Don't worry about it, honestly!"

"Let me at least see if your head's okay please. As long as I know I haven't almost killed you I'll be slightly relieved…I'll stop going on about it too," she added slyly.

Patrick groaned in defeat and felt her warm hand lightly brush his so as to inspect the damage. Patrick winced, preparing to bare any pain if she touched his bump; not surprisingly for the soft-hearted girl, she only gingerly brushed his hair away to see what had happened, keeping her hands a safe distance away from his painful head. Her hand began to move toward his bump; Patrick's eyes opened suddenly and his hand automatically flew up to cover his head, paranoid she would touch his bump by accident. His hand closed round his head and trapped her hand; he lifted his head to see Claire looking at him in surprise. Their eyes locked and Patrick felt something strange rising up in his chest. Claire struggled to breathe in and out calmly as Patrick stared back at her with the same expression as she did him.

"Claire!"

The yell from Julia brought them out of their strange trance. Patrick jumped back and released Claire's hand; he looked at his shoes for a second before lifting his head to try and talk to her. But she had already gone out the door, taking a cable and hat with her. Patrick blinked at the space she had just stood in before snatching his hat off the floor and securing it to his head once more, turning stiffly and heading out the door too, his surroundings just a blur as he almost stumbled along in a daze.

Claire had already descended the stairs and was most likely back in the living room; Patrick trailed absentmindedly back down to the ground floor and made his way into the living room, only to be met by his friends departing the room again. The others jumped back at the bright red Patrick.

"You took your time coming down stairs," Pete muttered with a sly smirk.

Patrick scowled at him and bared his teeth aggressively.

"C'MON!" Julia's impatient bellow made them all jump in shock. "What's the freakin' holdup!"

She pushed her way to the front and pulled the front door open. Claire's mum came back out of the now obvious kitchen and stared at them all.

"You're leaving?" Her voice sounded sad and her smile dropped as her daughter looked up guiltily.

"We have to mum, but we'll be back soon," she responded apologetically.

"No worries Mrs C," Julia cut in grinning, throwing her arm over Claire's shoulder and ruffling her hair; Claire dodged out the way and stuck her tongue out at her. "We'll be back." Her terrible 'Terminator' impersonation forced a smile on Kathy's face.

Claire hugged her mother goodbye and departed out the door, followed by the band who thanked for her hospitality; Julia bowed down low with a wave of her hand and departed backwards out the door, bowing the whole way as a joke.

She straightened up and trotted over to the driver's side of her van, stepping back a few steps before she did a run-up, clutched the top of the van and the bottom of the open window frame and threw her body in sideways. Claire rolled her eyes and stepped into the van like a normal person.

"Now THAT'S how you make an entrance!" Julia joked. The band stared flabbergasted by her strange way of getting in before hopping up through the side door.

"Duke Boys would be proud," Claire muttered sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"I call shotgun!" Julia yelled back to them, clasping the wheel.

Claire burst out laughing and pushed her slightly.

"Righto comrades." The girls swung round in their chairs to see the band making their selves comfortable once more. "Now here are the plans for world domination. Now, to start with we—"

"Julia? Why don't we find somewhere to stay tonight before making plans to take over the world?"

"You always say that, screw that! Let's take over the world now then we can find a place to stay easier."

"Julia? Shut up. Look, why – STOP that!" Julia drew her tongue back and grinned mischievously. "Why don't we stay at the new hotel they opened last year? Supposed to be a good place, I think it's near a petrol station."

"You mean the old Coniston hotel?"

"Yeah that. Well it's close to the motorway, still in Sittingbourne, near a gas station, near the town, good security apparently, Julia…stop…that." Her idiot pal lowered her hand with which she had been opening and closing rapidly.

"That's our best and pretty much our only option seeing as the next closest hotel is probably in Faversham or Maidstone, and it's useless going there, we don't know those towns well enough."

"Aye aye Captain Spock!" Julia interrupted in a gruff voice. Twisting the key in the ignition, she reached down behind her into her backpack and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. Flicking them open, she placed them on her face, grinned like a movie star and whispered low, "Let's ride." Claire slapped Julia round the back of the head and snatched the glasses off her face.

"You really don't do sunglasses Julia," she whined in the sort of voice that sounded like she'd argued this many times before. Julia chose to ignore her and accelerated forward. The wheels screeched as she continued to stare at Claire one eyebrow raised; without even paying attention to her surroundings or the terrified shouts from the band, she flicked the wheel with her wrist. The van wheeled round the cul-de-sac sharply, the tyres creating thick black marks along the road, whilst Julia and Claire stayed calm and forever frowning at each other jokily.

As soon as they were facing the exit out of the enclosed housing area, Julia twisted the wheel in one movement and the van steadied again, wobbling slightly but heading straight down the road. Julia's smile widened as she and Claire laughed at the overturned band, who sat toppled over, white with fright. Julia pounded her foot against the gas pedal again and the van sped away into the horizon…


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

"Okay, let me do the talking."

The trip up to this hotel took only a few minutes but this was due to the older girl's insanely fast driving. The hotel looked fresh and new-built, standing atop a large, steep hill. Situated across from it was a petrol station and car wash. If you faced the gas station, then on your right you would see more concrete road, more houses and more vehicles trundling along to the motorway; if you looked the other side the view of the small, busy town lay ahead of you, not exactly breath-taking but it had a cosy feel to it for some strange reason. In the distance a large steeple rose out of the tangle of numerous shops and houses along the old high street. After a few seconds of staring around them to see the size of the girls' small hometown, the band had been herded into the foyer of the new hotel. The smell of fresh paint had instantly hit them suggesting that there was work being done at that moment. It wasn't the most pleasant smell in the world; yet the band found it strangely soothing, as if the scent would bring them back to 'normal' world.

Claire marched up to the main Reception desk and began to confer with the Receptionist quietly; Julia stared around her anxiously. Her hand curled into a fist every few seconds and her arm twitched, unnoticed by the paranoid girl. A few minutes later of standing around waiting for the verdict, Claire thanked the staff member and trudged along back to the awaiting group. Instantly by her expression there was something wrong; not something drastic or catastrophic but not like it was 'National Candy Day' or something like that. She reached them, sighed and shook her head in disbelief.

"Well…" she began slowly, trying to word what she knew. "They've got some rooms for us. Some of us would probably have to share but…"

The others sighed in relief when they noticed her tense up and wriggle her shoulders uncomfortably.

"The problem is…they only have the _**two**_ rooms for us. Which would mean we'd have to share with you guys. And we're not allowed sleeping bags up there, company policy or something like that."

Her voice trailed off as she stared down at her shoes. Julia slumped and her face dropped.

"You are kidding me?"

Claire glanced up at her friend's depressed look.

"I wish."

The guys looked at each other in question.

"Umm, we don't mind if we have to share," Pete piped up. The others nodded in agreement. "I mean it's not like we haven't shared with people before. Besides we don't really care; we know you girls are good at your jobs and you're the ones that are keeping us out of trouble, so—"

"So it's cool and there shouldn't be any awkwardness in the whole sharing thing, we're fine with it," Patrick broke in. Claire's eyes flickered upward and met his for a millisecond. Both looked away just as quickly; but not fast enough for the others.

Joe grinned and ruffled Patrick's hair playfully.

"Hey watch it! Tender area!" Patrick grasped his head and ducked away from Joe who stared at him puzzled. He looked at Julia who shrugged back, equally amused.

"Okaaaay…moving on," Pete cleared his throat. "So how would we share rooms? Out of curiosity."

Claire and Julia swapped sideways glances confirming their ideas of sleeping arrangements, without a word.

"Well, it'd have to be two of you guys and then one of us to each partner. We can't have like three of you in one room, then us two and the other one of you guys. How do we know you wouldn't get kidnapped or ambushed by avid fans?"

"We don't mind who you'd rather stay with, as long as we get a room somewhere."

"And fast. This whole mission's gonna start making me crawl up the walls."

The guys nodded at that statement – this whole situation was going to turn them insane soon.

Claire nodded, sealing the deal.

"So we're okay to share? 'Cause I'll go get the rooms now."

She departed and talked to the Receptionist once more. They swapped key cards and credit cards before shaking hands. Claire motioned for them to follow her to a miniscule elevator, only just big enough to fit all six of them in there.

"Top floor," was all Claire said as they travelled up to their next destination. The elevator dinged as it shuddered to a halt on the highest floor of the warm hotel. Dragging their backpacks with them, the girls led the way down a long curving corridor to their new hotel rooms, Rooms 74 and 75. The doors clicked open simultaneously with the help of the cards revealing their new home for however long it took to straighten this whole mess out.

The rooms were identical and freshly made, obviously cleaned this morning; a door right next to the main door led into a well-lit gleaming bathroom. In the main room lay a large double bed covered in a thick quilt, a large sofa big enough to hold someone lying down, a bedside table and a chest of drawers with a basic T.V connected to a free view box. Julia threw her bag next to the bed and stared round in approval.

"Well it's not the Hilton or the Radisson…but it's all good."

"Where'd you go to those hotels then?" Joe asked out of curiosity, sitting gingerly on the bed and bouncing up and down, no doubt testing the quality and comfort of the bed; he'd had to steal it before the other person did.

"Hilton up in Maidstone, Radisson down in Egypt." She daydreamed, a vague smile appearing on her face. "I liked Egypt…they had a bar in the pool. Then again I did get crushed trying to play water polo. First and last time might I add!"

Joe laughed at her humorous honesty. She grinned back and began unpacking her backpack for what she would need that night.

Claire entered through the slightly ajar door, shouldered by Pete and Patrick.

"We should all stay in one room until we go to sleep I think," she started with a frown. "I'd feel safer if we did that. At least then we know who's here, who's where and what we're doing."

"Sounds like a plan!"

"Should we unpack now or try and do something to kill time?"

Claire pondered, pushed her phone out her pocket and inspected the time. Her face lit up curiously.

"Weeeell…"

"If you're thinking what I think you're thinking…"

"Oh go on, there might be something good on!"

"Psht! Yeah sure there will!"

"Aw c'mon don't be so pessimistic, I heard they did the place up and there are new owners now. Plus they opened the small screen again, got an extension and they've got _**another**_ screen round the back. Apparently Mrs Hay in Business liked Ania's scope project so much she sent it in."

"Figures," Julia said in an obvious tone. "She always was the sane one on our row. Correction, the only sane one in our class, I mean…well you were there. It was like they'd let the zoo have a day trip to school. _Every_ day."

"Well if Ania's was so good, maybe we should check it out. C'mon, it could be fun!"

"And what about the guys, what do they wanna do?"

The girls rounded on the band; they frowned back thinking of any entertainment that would get rid of time.

"Haven't got a clue," Pete shrugged. "What's your idea Claire?"

She beamed in delight.

"Well there's the cinema down town, 'bout a five or ten minute walk from here."

Julia sighed in defeat; she bolted out the room and returned less than 30 seconds later with Claire's laptop, powering it up as she wandered back in. She frowned at Claire who grinned back like an 'angelic', mischievous child. Julia rolled her eyes and nudged Pete to move over so she could sit on the bed. Reluctantly he got up and started toward the free half of the sofa; he growled as Patrick whipped in there quick and flashed him a smile, strangely similar to the one Claire had just given Julia.

"Alright," came the low grumble of Julia. "Choices for tonight are: Scary Movie 5, Eclipse or, BLEURGH!" She pulled a face as if she were in pain and disgusted by something. "High School Musical _**5**_! They made a fifth one, seriously? That's just painful to hear!"

"Hey who wants to see High School Musical 5?" Pete asked with mock-joy.

Julia glared at him and gripped the laptop harder.

"You're lucky this is Claire's laptop," she threatened quietly. "If it had been mine I wouldn't have cared if it got broken on your thick skull. As long as you end up in pain."

Everybody laughed loudly; Pete pretended to cower but failed miserably as a fresh wave of laughter made him buckle and clutch his stomach, his rumbling laughter causing stitches already. Julia sighed and rolled her eyes only just managing to refrain her lips breaking into a wide grin. She folded her arms and tapped her foot, staring into the distance. When they had all simmered down she looked back down at them with one eyebrow raised.

"You can go see High School Campsical all you want, _Petunia_." The guys grinned sideways at each other at the sound of Pete's new, feminine name. "I on the other hand don't mind seeing Scary Movie 5 or Eclipse. Rather see Eclipse though, it's the penultimate day of it being in the cinema so it'll pretty much be empty tonight. Plus the last Scary Movie was a bit rubbish, jokes too predictable."

"Yeah, if ever you want a critic's opinion on a film," began Claire, rolling her eyes as if she was used to this, "Go to Julia or Ania. Both seen millions of films ("Especially horrors!" piped up Julia) and took Film Studies as an A level. They're like the geeks of films!"

"First off, it's more like a bi-jillion films, and b) she's a _**dork**_, I'm the _**nerd**_."

"Whatever Julia, Eclipse then?"

She was addressing everyone in the room about the film choice. Patrick nodded thoughtfully and the rest put their thumbs up. Claire smiled.

"Good choice."

She checked her wallet as Julia stared at the slowly shutting down laptop…

"You okay there?"

There came a chorus of 'yeses' and Claire sat back relieved. They were sitting about the halfway mark in the cinema, refurbished just as Claire had foretold. Pete sat at one end with Patrick next to him and Claire on the right hand side of Patrick. In the seat next to her was Andy followed by Joe and then Julia on the aisle seat. Claire leant across Andy and Joe to talk to her quickly but she was cut off when she saw her friend's expression; she sat rigidly, her shoulders tense, her face turning slightly white. She looked furious, paranoid and anxious all at the same time, and her hands gripped the ends of her chairs arms the knuckles visibly going white as a few people began to take random seats across the almost deserted cinema. Claire got up quickly, swivelled round and jumped over the top of her seat and onto the empty row behind them. Hurrying down to her friend, she saw Julia give a fleeting glance around the cinema and her hand twitched.

"Julia," Claire whispered when Julia knew it was her. She kept her voice low so that no-one could hear their conversation. "What's up? You look like you're about to attack someone."

Julia ground her teeth and gripped the arm of her chair; she was in danger of ripping it off soon if she wasn't careful.

"This was a stupid idea," she hissed out the side of her mouth. "Yeah we all needed a break but seriously, the _**cinema**_? What were we thinking?" She lowered her voice so even Claire had trouble hearing her. "I mean what if someone knows we're here and comes in after us? We can't fight them without protecting the guys and everyone else in here. And I mean what if someone was able to phone us and we can't because we have to turn mobiles off? This was a stupid, stupid, _**dumb**_ idea!"

"Julia, cool it. Just relax okay? We'll be fine. If they did show up, (highly unlikely might I add) then we would have to complete our main, primary objective: protect Fall Out Boy. Besides, the guys know what sort of stuff to do now; haven't you noticed them watching us? They're learning how to defend and move quickly from 'studying' us. In fact they're getting free lessons…look just relax okay, the film will be over before you know it and we'll go straight back to the hotel the minute the credits show. Good with that?"

Julia breathed in and out slowly and looked up at her friend.

"Free lessons? The jammy buggers…"

Claire slapped her hand over her mouth to smother her giggles and ran back to her seat as the cinema attendant wandered through with his torch. Julia forced a nervous grin, trying hard to remember how to breathe in and out calmly.

There was raucous laughter and loud unnecessary swearing as a small group of four teenage boys came sauntering through, hands in their pockets, swinging from side to side as they made their way up the aisle. Julia and Claire swore under their breath as the teens swaggered up the stairs, talking too loudly on purpose. Other people gave them filthy looks as they carried on to the back. As they clambered up still swearing (even more than Julia – although there were four of them) they glanced round and spotted the unimpressed band and the glaring girls. They smirked and halted next to their row, taking in the six of them and looking Claire and Julia up and down. The guys willed their selves to stay in their seats to stop from yelling at the teens in the girls' defence; if they tried anything with the girls these idiots would be out cold in less than ten seconds.

"You alrigh' darlin's?" one yelled in a gruff voice. His friends guffawed behind him. Claire rolled her eyes and turned the other way; Patrick looked at her sympathetically and rolled his eyes with her. The two grinned at each other secretly.

"Aw don't be like that babes! Wha' bou' you love?" The teen leered at Julia. Joe frowned and shifted closer to her protectively; she glared back at the teens with a stone cold look.

"Keep walking unless you want someone waiting outside for you thickheads later," she snarled back at him. He blinked and swore at her before carrying on up the stairs, followed by his pathetic cronies. Julia gritted her teeth furiously and tried to remember how to breathe again. The lights suddenly dimmed completely and the cinema grew silent. There was the usual bustle of people turning off their phones, the long wait through the adverts for other films 'coming to a cinema near you'.

"Ooh, we should see that!" Claire whispered excitedly to Patrick, who grinned back and nodded in agreement. After the adverts were over the opening credits rolled across the screen; everyone shuffled to get comfortable for the film, with the girls swinging their legs over the empty seats in front of them copied by the guys.

The film started and it kept everyone entertained for a while. However it was only about half an hour into the film that it happened.

The girls had all but forgotten about the idiotic teenage boys behind them in the very back of the cinema. They had finally gotten bored with the movie and were now talking rapidly amongst their selves, still loud enough for the whole cinema to hear. As Bella Swan made a serious statement in the film, one of the boys burst out laughing and whispered loudly, "Oi, look at his text! What's he o' bou' mate?" Pete ground his teeth and repeated to himself 'do not attack, do NOT attack'. The talking suddenly dwindled to a silence making the six itch to turn around and investigate. And then it hit Joe. Literally. The teens laughed again at their oh so funny prank of throwing spit balls and popcorn at the six tense, angry people ahead. Joe sighed as he felt something lodge in his hair again; his brilliant hair was obviously the main target.

He debated going after the little punks and knocking their heads together when someone else decided to do it for him. One of them aimed badly and struck Julia on the back of her head. She blinked and bared her teeth struggling to keep calm and not boil over into a temper. However when she glanced up at Joe she was able to watch as a large piece of popcorn flew gracefully through the air and stuck to Joe's hair. Somewhere behind them came poorly muffled laughter. Joe rolled his eyes and went to talk to Julia when he froze; her face, even in the darkness of the huge room, had visibly gone completely white save for her flaming, scarlet cheeks. Her lips parted slightly and a growl escaped through them. And her eyes were no longer mischievous or sarcastic or bored, the usual way the guys saw them; they were flashing dangerously and it looked as if someone had lit a black fire in them. She growled again and twisted round in her chair, holding the back of her seat with a vice-like grip.

For someone who was several rows in front and sitting quite low in her seat, to the teens this random girl suddenly seemed to grow upward above them as she fought against the random guy's restraint. She stopped for a second and flashed her burning, livid eyes in their direction.

"If you do that one more time," her voice began darkly, "I swear, I'll come up there in a heart beat, take your f***ing cartons, shove them down your throats to stop your _**stupid**_ talking and then I'll throw each of you down the goddamn steps five times. That'll just be the beginning. Do one more thing and you'll wish you'd never been born."

Even though the film was still playing, someone from the other side of the cinema whooped and clapped her. The teens stared at her in shock and fury.

"You w—"

"_**Shut…up**_."

The voice of Claire rose up to them shakily as if she were trying hard not to curse like them or her friend.

"Don't think she'll do all that by herself, I'll hold you all down just so she'll get those boxes down!"

"Excuse me?"

With difficulty, the girls tore their eyes away from the equally angry teenage boys and stared up at the cinema attendant.

"I'm afraid we won't tolerate you disrupting the film, if you can't control yourselves, th—"

"It's not them!"

The supporting call was followed by agreeing mumbles.

"It's that lot behind them!"

The attendant swung his torch up and the beam fell on the disgruntled group. He nodded and beckoned to them.

"You've already been banned, I know who you are," he said to them, irritated by their arrival. They fidgeted and stood up swiftly.

"Your cinema's crap anyway, c'mon let's go this movie's a bunch of bull!"

The teenage boys started down the stairs herded by the employee. As they passed the band and girl's row they glared furtively at them all.

"You're dead for that mate!"

"I'm so scared," Pete muttered.

"Shaking," Andy snorted in annoyance.

"Go grow a pair," Patrick snapped at them.

"You lot are proper dead now."

"Like to see you try," Joe growled through gritted teeth.

Claire and Julia glanced sideways at each other and hid a grin; looked like they were going to meet their match.

The teens were led out and the cinema grew quiet once more, paying attention to anything they may have missed in the film.

"I didn't know you could get that angry," Patrick mumbled to Claire.

With her anger gone, she blushed and tried to stutter out an excuse. Patrick laughed quietly and nudged her playfully.

"It's cute in a strange way."

She blushed even more as he laughed again quietly and draped his arm over her shoulders lightly, his hand curving round to fit her shoulder. Without even thinking she automatically sighed slightly, drew up her legs and snuggled closer to Patrick, resting her head on his shoulder wearily. He blinked but decided not to say anything about it, instead concentrated on the film and blocked out the muffled snorts of laughter issuing from Andy and Pete.

"Well…"

Joe nodded thoughtfully as Julia stared at the screen not really taking in the film.

"I mean I knew you were no Mother Theresa, but that actually scared me."

She didn't move, but her fingers kept digging into her palms and then flexing out again automatically, her familiar way of dealing with her anger.

"Soooo…what was that just a girl thing? 'Cause it would explain a lot about them."

Julia frowned and turned her head to look at him in wonder.

"You don't talk to a lot of girls do you?" she whispered sarcastically.

He grinned and nodded.

"Sure, they're just not as weird as you normally."

Julia elbowed him gently and laid her curled fists on her legs, willing them to relax.

"You know what, I'm not sure why I keep insulting you, I'm genuinely terrified of you now."

He struggled not to laugh as she folded her arms and shifted away from him. He leant back and placed his arm round the back of her chair. With his right hand he gingerly gripped her shoulder and pulled her back closer before smiling down at her. She grinned back and had to force herself to look away at the cinema screen again…


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

"Oh…my…baby Jebus…that film was amazing! Okay, I gotta hand it to Emma, Sabby and Abi; they sure do know good films!"

"Well remember Tasha got you into _Twilight_."

"I need to repay her for that."

"She's still dying to go to Download."

"Download it is!"

The film had ended and the sky was beginning to darken, the clouds chasing each other as night approached. To get to the cinema they had to walk all the way down the very long high street, from near the end of the high street all the way to the bottom past the majority of the main shops. Were they happy to have to make the journey back in the gathering darkness after sitting down for at least an hour and a half without getting up? Take a wild guess.

They started their descent when Julia burst out laughing and pointed aimlessly at the kerb. The others gazed in bewilderment before Claire began to laugh with her.

"Oh my God," Julia finally gasped, "I thought those chavs were gonna come and kill us when they saw me!"

"Flat on your back!"

"It kept on going! I had to run after it in the middle of the road, remember?"

They began laughing again before they looked up through their tears and spotted the band looking nervously at them as if they had gone insane. The two grinned in apology.

"Err, first time she fell off a skateboard," Claire pointed at Julia. "Right in front of a bunch of chavs." She began laughing again as Julia looked on sheepishly. "Her skateboard went flying….right in the middle of the road…I've never seen her move so fast before!"

Julia shrugged.

"Few weeks after I'd learnt to do something that looked like skating."

The guys nodded in understanding and looked at each other. The girls hung their heads and caught up with them again taking the lead once more.

After 25 minutes of talking and walking they found their selves standing in front of their hotel; as they entered the Receptionist (a new employee on their shift) greeted them warmly, never taking his eyes off the six of them. Julia's fist clenched and Claire's jaw locked in suspicion. The Receptionist did nothing out of the ordinary so the girls decided to breathe again a little.

"Is it me or does this job make you two really paranoid?" Pete wondered aloud when they ventured into the lift.

The girls stared back at him and ignored his question as the lift ascended with an uneasy jolt. The elevator pinged and the doors slid open smoothly; Claire led the way once more with Julia bringing up the rear, automatically turning a 360 every now and again to check the perimeter. Claire unlocked the door to 74 and strode in ushering the band in too. Julia closed the door after her and they all sat on the sofa, bed or around it on the floor.

"Why are we all in here, remind me?" Pete asked slowly.

"We have to stick together until we all go to sleep otherwise it could be dangerous. It's better to stick together until that time so we know where everyone is."

Pete nodded at Claire and stared down at his shoes. The guys glanced at each other, shrugged and sighed. The girls' eyes narrowed.

"What's wrong with our company?" Julia asked slowly.

"No it's not that!" Pete backpedalled fast over their reactions. "It's just…we're kinda tired now."

The others nodded in agreement, Andy yawning involuntarily. The girls nodded and smiled reassuringly. Claire jumped up and started toward the door.

"Who's in the other room then?"

The guys looked at each other (especially at Patrick much to their amusement and his annoyance) and pointed at each other, conferring quietly. Andy and Patrick stood up ("OCD freaks with the tidier one of us," Julia whispered to the other two with a sneaky grin) and followed Claire out the room, pausing to turn and bid goodnight to the remaining three.

Julia stretched and clambered to her feet, shuffling to the bathroom.

"If you gents don't mind, I'm gonna take a shower okay? Please…please please _**please**_ don't get kidnapped or jump out the window. That's all I ask."

She chuckled to herself as they threw glares at her retreating back.

"Claire?"

Andy's voice echoed through the bathroom door; Claire glanced up from the mirror and stopped brushing the tangles in her soaked hair.

"Yeah?"

"Err, just a thought, how we supposed to sleep?"

Claire paused and stared at her reflection, rapidly trying to work it out. She sighed and unlocked the door; Andy looked up as she stepped in the doorway.

"Well, I'll take the sofa and you two should share. I'm cool with that."

"Hang on!" Patrick suddenly appeared out of nowhere; he hesitated when Claire stared back at him before he launched into his opposing idea.

"I think it would be fairer if you got the bed Claire, I'll sleep on the couch, and I dunno, you two sleep top to tail or something. It's only fair that you have a little comfort for once, I mean it's not like we've been letting you have any luxuries since the start of this mission."

"Apart from meeting you."

He hesitated again.

"Well yeah…bu-…look that's not the point. I just think you should get a good night's sleep for a change."

"Well I don't mind sleeping on the couch to be honest."

Claire and Patrick turned toward Andy; he shrugged and stared defiantly back.

"Patrick's right, you should sleep comfortably Claire, and besides you two are more close, you seem to be better friends. I really don't mind taking the couch."

The other two started arguing when Andy interrupted them in a loud voice,

"Great! Glad that's settled! And don't try and argue, I _**want**_ to sleep on the couch."

With that he turned, trying to keep the sly giggle inside of him; Patrick and Claire glanced at each other horrified; Patrick's eyebrow rose as his horror passed for a second.

"I didn't know you had wavy hair," he mumbled in interest.

She blinked and looked sideways at her hair.

"Umm, yeah…we both do…I just had it straightened before…obviously…"

"I like it wavy," he murmured again, looking at her wavy locks of shiny brown hair.

Their faces flushed and they turned away again.

"HEY! How long you gonna be? I gotta go bad!"

"Alright, alright, sheesh Pete! Give a girl a few minutes to look good!"

"With you it's gonna take a few hours…"

"I heard that!"

Pete chuckled as Julia departed the bathroom and took a playful swipe at him. He hopped in and slammed the door shut. Grabbing the towel around her shoulders, she scrunched her damp hair and rubbed the strands between the folds of the towel, her hair becoming curlier and more tousled as she worked. Joe looked up from her laptop and cocked his head to one side in interest.

"I didn't know you had curly hair…"

She stopped and looked up with a shrug.

"We both do, me and Claire, we just straighten it usually. Well I do, sometimes she leaves hers sort of wavy; it looks cool like that."

"I like your hair curly, it looks nice too."

He blushed a little and returned his gaze to the laptop screen; Julia pulled a face in surprise.

"Err…thanks…I guess…"

The bathroom door opened and Pete wandered back into the room.

"Thought's just occurred."

"Wow, that's quite an achievement."

"Ha ha, you're so funny."

"I try…"

"Whatever, I was just thinking how are we supposed to sleep? I mean like who sleeps where?"

They all looked at each other.

"Um…hang on, obviously I take the sofa, you two share the bed. Simples!"

"'Simples'?"

"'Alexandra' from 'compare the meerkat dot com'!"

"Okay! Enough about meerkats," Joe broke in. "You sure about the couch?"

He looked worriedly at Julia who grinned back and shrugged.

"I'm perfectly fine with the sofa, or couch; I've slept on worse before."

The guys decided not to ask what 'worse' was.

"Well I don't mind the couch," Joe argued slowly, "I mean we've all been sleeping comfortably since the start of the mission and—"

"Joe kicks anyway," Pete interrupted.

"HEY!"

"Well you do."

"No I…wait, no, seriously?"

Pete grinned mischievously.

"The few times I've had to share with you, you kick. I'm just lucky you have a different bunk to me on the bus, not directly next to mine! If it was I'd probably wake up with bruises on my side; you honestly didn't know?"

Joe gave him a scorching glare as Pete turned to Julia.

"Actually I'd rather take the sofa; knowing him he'd do sleep-walking and kick me just as I'm falling asleep."

"Oh right, he kicks so you dump him on me!"

Julia folded her arms and looked disgruntled; Pete grinned.

"What, you can take being shot at, falling out of buildings and a whole load of other crazy stuff…but not a guy that kicks a little in his sleep?"

Her eyes narrowed.

"Don't get smart with me, funny boy." He grinned at her. "What was all that about 'huge bruises' and then saying 'a guy that kicks a _**little**_'?"

"Do I get a say in this? If not, I'll kick you both."

She turned her head and looked at Joe in disbelief.

"Like to see you try."

Joe opened his mouth, closed it and frowned, turning the other way with his arms folded.

"I just wanna sleep on the couch, okay? Is it too much to ask?"

Pete attempted the 'puppy dog eyes'; Julia scoffed.

"We save your life and it's too much to ask to sleep on the couch?"

He nodded his grin widening. She hissed between her teeth and pouted slightly in annoyance.

He thought to himself for a second and suddenly his face looked drawn and depressed; Julia stared at him in concern.

"Besides…" He grinned sadly. "I've got a beautiful wife at home, and a gorgeous baby boy…I don't wanna be thinking about them and then suddenly be kicked in the back."

He had lowered his head a little and he stared up at Julia through his fringe, like a schoolboy. Her face had been soft and sympathetic whilst he had been speaking about Ashlee and Bronx; she cleared her throat and forced her 'don't care' look back on, although she couldn't help keep the sympathetic look slightly etched on her face.

"Fine," she finally agreed, turning away to the bathroom to dry and straighten her hair once more. "Have your stupid 'couch'! But if I wake up with bruises tomorrow ("Stop it! I'm right here!") then you're the one that's gonna pay."

Pete burst out laughing at her threat as she slammed the door on his echoing laughter. Sticking his thumb out he motioned at the bathroom door.

"I still don't get why you like her," he mumbled to Joe.

He jumped back and chuckled again as Joe snatched a pillow and aimed for Pete's head.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

"Hey Claire?"

Claire looked up from the bathroom mirror once more, trying to detangle some locks of hair; the rest had gone successfully straight with a slight wave to it.

"What's up Andy?"

"Just wondering, can I get some water from Room Service? If they even have it…do they?"

Oh sorry! I completely forgot, we should've got you guys drinks earlier!"

"It's okay, I was just wondering, it doesn't ma—"

"Yes it does! Hang on…"

The lock clicked and Claire strode out of the room, dressed in new clothes, her hair bouncing on her shoulders. She was already out of the room and knocking on next door when Andy turned in surprise.

"We didn't feed them Julia."

"HEY! We're not from the zoo!"

"No but you act like it," the girls called back simultaneously.

Obviously their hushed whispering was not hushed enough; Pete and Joe came to the door and stood behind the girls indignantly, whilst Andy and Patrick joined Claire's side.

"Thought you said you were tired," Claire asked slyly.

"Thought you were supposed to be keeping us quiet," Pete replied quickly, gesturing the open corridor and high-fiving the others. Julia shrugged.

"I've gotta give him that one, that was quick especially for him."

His smiled widened.

"Well, do you guys wanna eat or no?"

There was a loud chorus of 'hell yeah!' silenced by Claire and Julia's manic, panicked waving hands.

"Well we'll get you one of the finest things Britain has to offer." Julia grinned. "Crappy take-aways!"

They were crammed back into the van again, this time wary of Julia's driving; however it was with relief and panic that Claire took over the wheel. Was she going to be as insane as Julia when driving?

"How do back there?"

The guys mumbled that they were good, and Claire fired up the engine. Julia twisted in her seat and threw a pencil at Pete. She attempted to throw a piece of paper to him too but it drifted sadly to the floor; the girl sighed and struggled up.

"JULIA! Why do you always have to move every time _**I'm**_ driving?"

"'Cause I'm that good a friend?"

Claire rolled her eyes and drove steadily on whilst Julia dropped onto her knees and passed the paper to Pete once more.

"Can I take your order sirs, and would you like fries with that?"

The guys passed round the paper and wrote down what they wanted to eat before passing it back to the now humming girl. She wrote something herself on the paper and leant back to whisper to Claire. Standing, Julia took one look at the guys and then behind her at the front seat; she grimaced and shrugged, sitting back down. No way was she jumping in the front of a moving vehicle; Claire would murder her.

"Northwood Drive?"

Julia grinned and sucked in a breath.

"NO! No no no, you are _**not **_singing that song! You know I crack up every time you sing it and I really don't want to crash, so please shut up before you even say anything!"

Julia's smile faded and she faced the window sulkily; Claire sighed and rolled her eyes as the faint sound of Julia singing came from her huddled, stroppy figure…

"We have to destroy their organisation, I don't care how long it takes and who you terminate, get the job done!"

The Boss sighed and pressed the bridge of nose in frustration; an accomplice gabbled pathetically on the other end of the mobile he was using.

"Take out their Boss first. He's going to be the most difficult. I'm coming back soon, and when I do those girls are going to wish they'd never been born!"

There was a silence between the two before the henchman stuttered again.

"Stop your stupid stammering and get the damn thing over with! Put aside your best men…I don't give a crap if you need them or not, _**I**_ need them! Well obviously if you lousy men were unable to take out two young girls simply, I'm going to need the best ones to finally finish them off. Do you understand?"

There was another silent pause.

"Get to it."

He stabbed the 'end call' button and glared at the airport in front of him. Grinding his teeth together, he strode forward angrily through the entrance…

"I'm gonna die!"

"You only had a small meal, what's up with you?"

Julia rubbed her stomach in pain.

"I haven't been skating or walking for a while, I can feel the pain of eating too much and exercising very little. Sorry if we can't all take it like you Joe!"

Joe laughed and patted his own stomach.

"I didn't even know you liked Chinese."

"I told you England's good for crappy take-aways."

They grinned at each other.

"Well you two can be fat then," Claire began.

"Will do!"

She gestured toward herself, Andy and Patrick.

"_**We**_ on the other hand know what's good for us; next time you should get a salad and save yourselves the pain."

She glanced at Pete.

"At least Pete can keep down a pizza no hassle."

He pretended to curl up in pain.

"Could I suppose…" Julia contemplated the offer of healthy eating.

"It's a possibility," Joe agreed folding his arms.

"We'll look into it -"

"Or not."

The two smiled cheekily at the others; Claire rolled her eyes and Patrick raised an eyebrow. Pete grinned and threw a bread roll at Andy jokily. He ducked, picked it up from the floor and threw it back harder. There was a dull thud as Pete whipped to one side and the dented roll collided with the wall; Claire frowned and tried to keep back a smile as Pete, Joe and Julia burst out laughing.

"Y'know," Julia started, holding back her hysterical giggles. "You could play the mother figure of our merry band of mishaps Claire. There's a starring roll of the steady father if you're interested Paddy."

Claire sighed as Patrick pretended to laugh.

"You should be a comedian really," he answered sarcastically.

"Yeah you could be the ventriloquist dummy," she retorted cuttingly. He pursed his lips and folded his arms. Pete chuckled and shot a glance at the small alarm clock placed on the bedside table by Claire. He groaned and rubbed his eyes suddenly tired; Andy looked at the clock too and yawned.

"8:52." Pete stretched. "I'm completely wiped out."

"Totally beat," Patrick mumbled.

"C'mon then munchkins." The girls stood up simultaneously. "Let's get some sleep before we have to leave the burrowing confinements of our beds in the morning."

"What she means is, we'll figure out our next step in the morning and see where we are with the whole mission and stuff," Claire said reassuringly, smiling warmly at all five of them.

Claire departed the room with Andy and Patrick, calling 'good-night' as they left. The remaining three slumped back further where they sat.

"If everyone else is as knackered as me, I say we just drop where we are." Julia looked round expectantly.

"No way dude!" Pete struggled to stand up and made for the sofa; the girls had already made up make-shift beds for the night. "I need a good night's sleep and the couch is calling my name!"

Julia sighed and attempted to stand.

"Fine, have your stupid comfort…" she grumbled.

Snatching up her backpack, she pulled a face at Pete and sauntered into the bathroom.

Claire came back into the main room as Andy darted past her into the bathroom. Patrick glanced up from the bed as she treaded lightly through and smiled bashfully. She wore simple red pyjama bottoms and a loose, colourful t-shirt; a Fall Out Boy tour t-shirt. Looking down at it she shrugged, her face turning a slight lobster colour as Patrick took in her shirt.

"It was the first one I saw back home, so…" she trailed off and moved slowly toward the sofa, avoiding Patrick's eye. There was the click of the bathroom lock behind her and the sudden pounding of running footsteps as Andy came tearing out and launched himself onto the sofa expertly; Claire blinked.

"So you guys can move fast…"

Andy smiled angelically.

"Only when we want to."

Claire rolled her eyes in mock-irritation and reluctantly turned to face the bed; Patrick looked up at the ceiling with fake interest and twiddled his thumbs as Claire wandered timidly to the bed. Taking an inconspicuous deep breath, she casually slid under the duvet next to Patrick and sat bolt upright; the nervous two sat identically, tense and looking anywhere but at each other.

Andy yawned under his thick duvet and chanced a peek at the uncomfortable couple. With difficulty he refrained himself from laughing or calling out 'The Married Couple'. He allowed himself a small giggle before his mouth opened wide in another yawn; he turned on his side suddenly weary and snuggled down on the sofa.

A few minutes passed before Claire heard the steady breathing of Andy obviously fast asleep. She blinked and suddenly the heavy weight of sleep hit her. Slumping slightly, Claire glanced through the strands of her hair hanging over the left half of her face, the only thing separating her and Patrick. Patrick looked over at her at the same time; their faces flushed scarlet in a second. Clearing his throat he nodded.

"Right…so…"

Claire bit her bottom lip.

"Best get some shut-eye. Umm…night. I'll just…just turn off the light."

He stretched to his left, swallowed a lump and flicked the switch to turn the lamp off; the room was plunged into darkness, leaving the sitting couple even more uncomfortable than before.

"G'night," Claire whispered, dropping quickly onto her side facing away from Patrick.

"Night," he replied in a strange whisper as he lay down facing the other way to her back.

'Well this isn't awkward,' he groaned to himself as he felt Claire tense up next to him.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

"Gah!"

Joe looked up in surprise.

"'Gah'?" he replied uncertainly.

Julia dragged her feet across the room and stared depressingly at the floor; her pyjamas were quite plain, plain black checked bottoms and a loose black t-shirt with a white 'Scream' mask on the front.

"I need sleep."

"No-one's stopping you," he commented as she made for the sofa.

"I am!"

Julia's head whipped up as Pete zoomed past her and flew onto the sofa, instantly making himself comfortable; she frowned at his smiling face.

"Damn you Wentz…"

He stifled a chuckle as she took a deep breath and spun round to face the double bed on which Joe sat. Joe sucked in a breath and cleared his throat as she tripped over to the bed, her fists clenched in nerves.

Pete snorted as she sat down and kicked the duvet away. The two in the bed glared at him.

"Sorry," he replied in a shaky voice, holding up a hand. "Sorry…" He sighed and lay down under his covers, plumping up his pillow before resting his head once more. Joe and Julia held their breath until the first sound of Pete snoring softly reached their ears. Breathing in deeply again, Joe looked up at the ceiling as Julia flopped down under the duvet, facing away from him.

"Night," she said bluntly.

"Umm…night."

Switching off the light, Joe snuggled down next to her.

"…Which way are you facing?"

Joe prevented himself from sighing in irritation and turned on his side to face the wall away from Julia.

"Sorry…night…" came the sleepy mumbles…

The Boss of the major organisation glared upward at the henchmen standing around him and his captive colleagues. A few of them conferred between their selves, a few stood around smoking, all the while keeping a firm hold of their automatic weapons and watching the captives intensely with mocking grins.

"Aint this comfy?" one asked in a gruff voice, smiling unpleasantly at the Boss.

The colleague on the Boss' right side spat at his feet.

"Go to hell!"

Without warning, the henchman drew back his arm and smashed his gun into the young agent's face. He coughed as his friends wrestled against their bonds to tear their enemies apart. The henchman grinned menacingly when the Second-in-command appeared at his side, phone by his side; he looked slightly nervous and angry.

"That was the Boss." He hesitated and addressed his fellow cronies again. "He's coming back. Those girls are gonna die; he's already working on it. He wants the best of us to meet him at the airport; that means you two…" He began to point his colleagues out, motioning for them to depart the building and meet their Boss at the airport for more information. "Meanwhile…" His gaze slid to the prisoners and he furrowed his brow.

"This pack of useless bastards isn't needed anymore. The Boss wants us to terminate every one of them."

He indicated the Head of the secret organisation with a grim smile.

"Starting with him."

The remaining henchmen cheered maliciously as the prisoners stared up from the floor in fear; the Boss of the organisation took a deep breath in before he was hauled roughly to his feet. The cronies cheered wilder as the Second-in-command steered him into his old office, removed his bonds so as to give him some dignity and shut the door. The two faced each other; the Boss in anger, the henchman in loathing. Nudging the Boss with the barrel of his gun, he forced him to the other side of the office, his back to a large square in the wall which showed a simulation of the weather and the view of the outside world. This kept the agents stimulated and sane after a hard day's work. The Boss didn't flinch or gulp as the Second-in-command raised his weapon until the barrel of the gun rested in front of his forehead. The crony stepped back a few steps to keep a safe distance between them.

"Any last words?" he sneered.

The Boss smiled a little to himself; the henchman spat at his feet and squeezed the trigger. It all happened so quickly neither had a chance to draw breath.

The moment the Boss saw the henchman's finger curl around the smooth, cold trigger he ducked. There was an almighty smash as the bullet flew into the simulation 'window', and it cracked into large shards of deadly glass and dusty fragments. The henchman was only halfway through blinking in surprise and just opening his lips to shout a warning when the Boss swung out a foot, colliding with his chest; there came the sickening snap as the two realized in an instance a rib had been broken. Somersaulting over, the Boss kicked out at the automatic weapon in the shocked enemy's hand, before leaping into an upright position and grabbing the gun whilst it still flew through the air. The crony had enough time to open his mouth again before the handle of the gun swung out at his head and his world turned black.

With that asshole down, the Boss breathed in deeply, feeling the adrenaline coursing through his body.

"Why'd I give up missions?" he laughed to himself.

Smashing a small mirror, he grabbed the largest shard and ducked down to the floor. Pushing the tip out under the door, he twisted it slightly and slid it further out. Now he had a view of the surroundings; the henchmen were all in the same positions as before, still the vile grins on their faces, whilst the agents glared up at them. Counting to three, the Boss cocked the gun, stood in one fluid movement and flung open the door. Moving lithely, he fired with a perfect aim and took down a bad guy, one by one. They fell with a loud thud and writhed in pain, clutching their shot wounds. The Boss crouched down behind an overturned desk as they began to fire back, the element of surprise worn off already. As he rolled across the floor on his stomach he caught a glimpse of an army knife held in the belt of one of the wounded.

Changing course, he army-rolled past this foe and gripped the knife; the moment he had it free of the belt and had dodged the wild hands of the man in agony, he flung it across the floor. It slid to a perfect stop in his vacated spot, within reaching distance of the agent who had been on the left side of him. He dodged more bullets as the agent snatched up the knife, twisting his wrists round to reach it. It only took a few moments before the agent had split the bonds around his wrists and passed it to the next colleague. Snatching a weapon off the ground, he joined the Head of his organisation and fired with precision at the oncoming attack. As the battle resumed the two free agents were joined by more of their friends; eventually there were too many agents for the enemy to face. A large majority of them were already lying on the floor in pain. With a furious gaze around at their wounded, the remaining handful of cronies held their hands n the air as a sign of surrender.

The agents cheered as they captured the henchmen and bound their wrists with cord. As they stared around at each other with wide, triumphant smiles they suddenly realized someone was missing; the yelling ceased as they pondered where their Boss had disappeared to. The answer came when he ventured into the main office again, a mobile phone pressed close to his ear.

"C'mon Claire, c'mon Julia, pick up!" he pleaded through gritted teeth…

Claire opened her eyes blearily; the curtain had been pulled back and the sunlight streamed through. Unlike her friend, Claire enjoyed the glow and warmth of the sun. The rays shone though and illuminated the bed; she sighed in bliss as the heat hit her and closed her eyes sleepily. She lay on her side, slightly on her back, her right hand curled under the pillow where her head rested, her other hand curled around something strange and warm. Claire wriggled a little and sighed again; her hair fell away from the back of her neck and that's when she felt it. A hot breath blew against the nape of her neck, so close Claire froze in shock. Whoever it was behind her nestled closer; the thing she had been holding turned out to be somebody's hand. Claire was about to yell and attack this person, but as she turned her head and glanced behind her quickly she stopped and breathed out in relief; it was only Patrick. He frowned and twitched in his sleep, the arm over Claire's side and butterfly filled stomach hugging her closer to him. She held her breath and tried to lower her pulse. Patrick sighed in his sleep and her heart beat began racing again; she rolled her eyes in embarrassment. Even though his breath was quite hot she felt completely relaxed as he slept on. It was quite soothing she thought to herself; she smiled sleepily. She must be dreaming.

Suddenly Patrick jolted awake, surprising Claire. With difficulty he opened his eyes and stared round the fuzzy room; with a weary groan he stretched behind him and snatched up his glasses from the bedside table. Blindly he shoved them on his face and stared around the room again. The beam of light from the sun illuminated the walls and reflected off everything creating a golden glow about the room; a bird suddenly twittered musically outside; and as he looked down Patrick had to stop himself from jumping in shock. His right arm propped him slightly up on the bed as he stared down at the dark-haired, small figure of Claire. She didn't have enough time to pretend to be asleep; she bit her bottom lip and blinked. Reluctantly she turned her head again and stared up at him.

"Hi," she whispered timidly; he blinked and shook his head.

"No…good hotel room, nice day outside, a bird singing, a _**bird**_…and now I'm lying next to a beautiful girl."

She flushed red automatically.

"No…" he shook his head again. "This has to be a dream. Or a really good nightmare that's about to be taken away…"

He paused and stared down at her, his brow furrowing. Patrick raised his left arm that had been draped over her and curled his hand slightly. He hesitated as Claire stared at his hand in curiosity. Suddenly he lowered his hand and ran it gently over Claire's cheek to see if it was a dream or reality.

Both their eyes widened and they sprang apart across the bed. Claire breathed in and out quickly trying to calm herself again; Patrick cleared his throat, folded and unfolded his arms, and stared at the wall next to him. Clearing his throat again he couldn't stop himself sneaking a sideways look at Claire. She sat rigidly on the very edge of the bed. There was a deadly, uneasy silence between the couple.

Suddenly there came a loud snore from the sofa making them both jump and glare at Andy.

"I suppose it can't be a dream if Andy's snoring away in it. Perfect to be a dream though."

Claire turned to face Patrick and stared at him in puzzlement.

"What did you just say?"

Patrick could've kicked himself; what had meant to be a thought had slipped out aloud. He closed his eyes as if in agony and jumped out of bed, ignoring the horrible cold feeling that seized him immediately.

"I'm just…gonna…" he murmured almost running to the bathroom and slamming the door.

Claire sat frozen in a cloud of mixed emotions unable to pick out what she should be feeling right now; Patrick slunk to the floor and banged his head gently against the wall, all the while saying 'stupid, stupid, stupid'.

Julia opened her eyes a little and squinted at the brightness that engulfed her. She wasn't facing the window but the sun threw its beams around the room and lit up every inch spectacularly. She groaned and snuggled down again against something quite hard and warm. Her arm was draped over whatever this thing was; she hugged herself tighter to this thing and sighed sleepily. Something hung around her shoulders and gripped her right shoulder, whilst something else kept a firm hold on her right forearm. Even though her eyes were shut once more the sun cast a strange orange glow behind her eyelids; she frowned and refrained from shoving a pillow over her head for a few more blissful seconds of darkness as she normally would. Instead she forced her eyes open and stared blankly at the opposite wall. She blinked and her face immediately changed expression to one of bemusement.

'How the hell did that wall get there when I wasn't facing it last night,' she mused, trying desperately to figure out this apparent mystery.

It was only then that she realized that whatever she was lying on was moving steadily up and down, rhythmically. She looked at her surroundings again trying to think of any sane answer to what was going on; suddenly the rising and falling thing twitched and shifted slightly. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she looked up; at the same time Joe opened his eyes wearily and gave a fleeting glance around the small hotel room, his eyes roaming uninterested across the brightly lit room and the sprawled figure of Pete slumped half on and half off the sofa, before resting on the girl hugging him across the chest. It took a mini-second for him to realize he had his arms around her as well hugging this strange girl closer to him. It took another mini-second for him to realize…it was Julia.

They both stared at each other in horror before tearing apart and sliding swiftly to opposite sides of the double bed.

'Thank you God, for making double beds big enough for space,' Julia quietly prayed in her head. Joe opened his mouth and shut it again rapidly in shock and embarrassment. Pete moaned in his sleep and turned over onto his side facing the back of the sofa. Joe and Julia stared at him with tense interest, trying hard to avoid each others' eye. Julia bit her lip and inched off the bed; Joe couldn't help himself and watched inconspicuously whilst she slid out of the bed. Taking a deep breath and refusing to look back at the figure hunched up in the left side of the bed, Julia made her way to a chair against the wall near to the sofa, where she had placed her clothes the night before. Obviously not over the back of the chair where it could look halfway decent, but chucked straight onto the seat where it had crumpled pathetically. She seemed to have already erased the memory of her little scenario with Joe although he noticed her cheeks were a light shade of crimson.

She shook out her jeans and reached into one of the front pockets, retrieving her mobile phone. She took one look at it and instantly her face became shocked, furious and hopeful; Joe sat up straighter, grabbed a pillow from behind his back and threw it at Pete. Pete woke with a yelp as something lumpy smacked him in the face and suddenly feathers fluttered around him. He looked up angrily at Joe only to be directed with a nod of Joe's head to stare at Julia. Her fingers were flying furiously over the keypad whilst she raced out the door. The two guys had only started getting up when the sound of Julia pounding her fist against next door rang out.

"Claire! _**Claire!**_ CLAIRE!"

The door flew open and suddenly Julia was rushing back into her hotel room, dragging Claire by the forearm behind her. Andy and Patrick skidded into the room and stared at Pete and Joe in impatient shock.

"What's going on?" Pete asked loudly.

Claire held up a hand for silence as Julia held the phone close to her ear and waited for someone to answer.

"_Julia!_" someone yelled joyfully before the first ring had even ended.

"_**Boss?**_" she screeched enthusiastically.

"It's the Boss?" Claire's face lit up and her mouth broke into a wide, jovial smile.

"You got out I see and hear," Julia responded with a brilliant grin, high-fiving Claire.

"_Yep, we're okay. State the obvious as ever_ _Julia." _Claire grinned as Julia's eyebrows furrowed, her smile stuck in place. _"And your primary objective?"_

"You mean 'break in, bust out, beat up, and then babysit'?" Julia quoted. "C'mon, you know we're better than that! Piece o' cake!"

"_Of course I know you're good agents…that's the problem."_

Julia froze, mirrored straight away by Claire who could hear some of the distant conversation.

"_Yes we're fine, you're fine and, it's especially good to hear the band is doing good. I take it Claire's taken the mother role?" _Julia smothered a giggle and bit the inside of her cheek as Claire frowned at the electronic device. _"However the ringleader of this whole scheme is still on the loose. From what we know he returned to America, obviously to try and catch you girls with the band. Thankfully you did the smart thing and got the hell out of there as soon as you could! But we now know he's on his way back. He's ordered some of his agents to meet him at the airport where they'll receive more information on the situation; what this information is we have no idea. What we're going to do now, we have to decide soon. His bonehead colleagues left at around 6.a.m. and now it's just gone 8:57."_

"So what time should we co—"

"_No! It's dangerous enough as it is. He's most likely to be in England by now, and for all we know he could be arriving back here very soon. Or he could've dug something up about you two and coming to Sittingbourne right now. I'll ring you again in half an hour and we'll plan then. Right now you need to leave wherever you are and get somewhere safer."_

"Righto Boss." Julia opened her mouth and struggled to say something. "Did you…did you know who he was?"

There was a silence as the six of them waited patiently for the response. The Boss sighed heavily.

"_He was my friend and colleague; I had trained him myself. He was one of the best and he knew it. However he knew it too well and tried to take the power of the organisation. As you know it's a great asset to the nation and has every link to anything; like the Pentagon of England. Well, he failed to take control of the organisation, we fought, and I sent him off to another country out cold; I arranged some papers to be made to show his death and wiped his entire record off the system. I never thought I would see him again, not since I saw him 13 years ago."_

"Unlucky number," Julia mumbled to Claire dully. "So he did all that and failed, and now he's got some bitchy grudge and is trying to take over again," she continued in a disgusted tone. "Dude needs to get out more and stop watching stuff like _Die Hard_."

"_Half an hour girls. Answer this time and try not to sleep so heavily next time."_

The phone went dead as the girls blushed a little at the memory of their awkward morning.

"Now what?" Pete asked in a weary tone…


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

"Half hour is almost up Julia."

They had left the small hotel immediately after the phone call, dressing hurriedly and almost forgetting their precious backpacks. Paying the friendly Receptionist they had ignored the fact that the sun was still shining brightly despite it being the end of October, start of November and had jumped straight into the van. Claire had permitted Julia to drive insanely whilst she loaded up guns much to the bands worry. Would they really need guns? After just a few scary minutes of hurtling down small roads, they had finally stopped outside Julia's house again. The guys had started toward the door when they had been ushered instead across the wearing black road toward a tall wall of overgrown, violently green hedges. Bewildered, they had been pushed roughly through a tiny, almost invisible gap swiftly joined by the two girls; all six were now on the lookout. The band took one look at their 'safe place' and nearly bolted back through the hedge; they were in a massive field, four goal posts standing at one end and a large children's play area taking up one corner of the park in front of them.

They all turned to protest when Claire and Julia stared at them stonily.

"Yes, we know it's in the open," Claire explained softly. "He's not going to attack us in the open, it's too risky. Besides with all six of us we can keep a lookout from different sides. And anyway, we can both hear anything coming close to us in a second – even if it's 20 metres away. We're very observant. He's not going to think about coming here anyway, he doesn't know the town like we do. Don't panic it'll be fine."

"But it's a park!" Pete argued hysterically.

"Thank you Captain Sherlock," Julia muttered under her breath.

Pete ground his teeth.

"A park is gonna be the first thing he goes for, he's not stupid!"

"Got a better idea?"

Pete began to answer when Julia's smug look stopped him and he growled in his throat; of course he didn't, he'd never been to Sittingbourne before until these crazy spies had saved their lives.

"No you don't know you're way around 'cos you've never been here, right?" she responded, reading his mind. "_**We**_ do. Know why that is? Because we've lived here for most of our flip-flopping lives, and we know this place like the back of our hands. And if you argue anymore the back of my hand will be making contact with the back of your head."

She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples in irritation. Claire went to comfort her but to the great surprise of everyone, including Julia, Joe gently took her by the shoulders and stopped her pacing.

"Hey calm down, it's gonna be fine just like Claire said," he soothed in a quiet voice. She breathed in and out slowly and stared back into Joe's comforting eyes. "We're gonna be fine."

She breathed in and nodded her head in determination, before stalking off across the field, trying desperately to vent off any rage that still lingered within her. Joe jogged after her and walked by her side, slowing her down to a steady pace. Claire followed after with Patrick by her side protectively, looking around him occasionally to check if Claire was in any danger, or looking at her out of the corner of his eye. Pete and Andy caught up to them quickly and sauntered between the two couples so as to keep the spies happy that they were within a safe distance and not being riskily suicidal.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say Patrick and Joe are getting a little too close if you know what I mean," Pete whispered to Andy with a cheeky smile.

"_Love is in the air_" Andy sang quietly; Pete spluttered and turned it into a cough as Patrick looked at him suspiciously.

As soon as they had reached the dead centre of the field they had slumped to the ground; the sun still shone crazily through the tops of the trees surrounding the park, casting shadows across the plain that missed their waiting spot and allowed the sun to light up their area. The moment they sat down Claire's mobile phone was suddenly out of her jean pocket and pressed close against her ear.

"_Nice to hear you picking up on time."_

"We always do," Claire replied to her Boss indignantly.

"_Still nice to hear you're okay. We haven't heard anything from Him, which calls for action; we need to get him out in the open so we can take control and stop him from doing anything else. How we're going to do it we don't know—"_

"Just hang a girlfriend in front of him," Julia called to the Head of their work. "Sounds like he's never seen one before, _**that'll**_ get him out!"

"_Yes, thank you Julia. I'm going to talk to Claire instead."_

The girl grinned at her friends.

"Well…" Claire paused and furrowed her brow; worry lines appeared which seemed strange to the band, they had never seen the 'Peacemaker' worried before. "I had an idea…I don't know if it would work, plus it does sound a bit stupid."

"_Claire, I don't care if it's stupid, weird or suicidal – we need any ideas to catch this guy."_

"Well…I thought that he wants Fall Out Boy so bad, right? I mean he's been chasing the six of us across two different continents just trying to get the guys back under his watch. He wanted them as a distraction so we would go off and rescue them whilst he tried to take control of the organisation. Now we've broken out he wants to get rid of us and Fall Out Boy; there are one too many of us that know about the organisation now, it could be risky for him if we found reinforcements. So he wants us so bad? Why doesn't he come and get us? People know Fall Out Boy because of their music – why don't we use this to our advantage. If we could lure him out by putting on a gig with the band then we could catch him easily. I mean he knows we'll be there watching over the whole thing, so he'll think he can catch the band _**and **_us two at the same time; what he doesn't know is that you're free again. You can be backstage undercover whilst the gig is going on or you could be surrounding the perimeter without him knowing. When the time comes and he's out in the open, you get in there and take him out. Us organising a concert is gonna be the last thing he expects, and yeah sure he'll figure out straight away why we're doing it probably. But he also knows that this is his one chance of catching us; if he doesn't do it then, he'll never get a chance because we can just go far away and break you out again which is not what he wants."

Claire caught her breath again as there was a silence on the phone and a silence in the ring of friends around her.

"Y'know…that's not a bad idea."

Claire smiled in gratitude as Julia thought her long speech over.

"That's actually not a half-assed idea for once! This could work!"

The guys stared at them perplexed whilst they tried to decipher their plan; one by one it dawned on them and their faces formed a look of understanding and agreement.

"That really could work, that's a brilliant idea," Patrick complimented enthusiastically, smiling hugely at Claire. For the first time she didn't blush; she smiled back just as friendly and high-fived Pete who whooped quietly.

"_Claire? You're a genius."_

Claire flushed a little and threw a smug look at Julia as a joke. She stuck her tongue and beamed.

"_You know where you can have this concert I take it? and I trust you know what you're doing? I'm sorry I couldn't help Claire, but it's took risky. If I came out to help you it could jeopardise everyone here. I'm putting it down to you two – you six actually. Call when you have a date and everything is in order."_

The dialling tone sounded and Claire replaced her phone in her pocket, whilst everyone grinned and whooped like monkeys…

"So the 2nd of November is when we're planning to do this thing?" said Pete a little doubtfully. "Isn't that a bit fast?"

"No we want to spend at least a month of excruciating pain trying to protect you guys. At the end of the month you can do the gig."

"Point taken," Pete replied grumpily.

"The sooner we get this over and done with, the sooner you can go back home. Think happy thoughts guys."

"Hippy…"

"Julia? Shut up."

The six of them were busy in preparation for this ploy to lure their enemy out. It was the 29th of October and they needed to prepare quickly and inconspicuously. The six crowded round the several pieces of paper set out in front of them. Julia negotiated rapidly on the phone to someone, her words so fast the guys couldn't understand her.

She nodded and said 'thanks' before ending the call and dialling another number.

"They're cool to let us use their venue," she murmured to Claire whilst she waited for the other caller.

Claire stuck her thumb up and wrote down on one sheet of paper 'Wyvern Hall'. Julia's head rose slightly and she smiled at the unseeing caller.

"Hey Louis! Need a favour sorry…"

She got up unsteadily and proceeded to the back of the van to negotiate with someone else whilst Claire carried on making notes with Patrick prompting her when she hesitated.

Only a few minutes passed before Julia bounded back to them and thumped herself back down on the van floor.

"Louis' cool to let us use his amps and whatnot," she explained.

"Who?"

"Guitar teacher."

Joe blinked and looked up in surprise.

"I didn't know you played guitar!"

"You didn't ask. Yeah we both play guitar, but Claire's a singer as well. Bloody good at that too."

"You sing?" Patrick enquired gently. She nodded, not looking up as her cheeks had gone a familiar shade of light crimson. "You have to let me hear sometime, please? I bet you have a really good voice."

"Not as good as yours," she replied, raising her head a little.

Pete cleared his throat.

"Can we get back to this? We need a big crowd right, to make it look more real? How are we supposed to that?"

"Leave it to us, and the wonders of Microsoft Paint, printers and the brilliant Bebo and Facebook."

He still looked doubtful.

"What about the crowd though? What are we gonna say if you start kicking the crap out people during a song? You'll get arrested."

"Not as long as you all look natural and like it's been planned to go with the song," Claire responded swiftly, obviously having already considered the situation of the audience's reaction to the two girls beating people up.

"Well let's get to work!" cried Julia, jumping up like a yo-yo…

He paced impatiently back and forth across this small, bland room, sweeping a glance at his wristwatch before growling and pacing even faster. Eventually the door on his right opened and a huge, muscular figure crept timidly into the room. He was almost twice the size of his Boss but he still cowered under his questioning look.

"We've got the best here Sir," he mumbled, focussing all his energy on not stuttering. "And we've heard no more on the organisation or the spies, which should mean nothing bad's happening at the moment. We ready for any other jobs you have for us Sir," he finished, his voice a little steadier and braver.

His Boss stared back at him in disbelief, before turning around to face the wall apparently satisfied.

"I want you to keep a tab on these inferior, annoying pieces of dirt," he ordered quietly. "Find out through any means necessary their addresses, emails, I don't care. I want these girls dead."

Even though he didn't turn, the bodyguard bowed his head and fled the room before he was instructed with anything else. With a sigh he snatched up a remote control, pointed it at a blank T.V screen in front of him and clicked it to life. Instantly the news turned on, proclaiming headlines of politicians under pressure, schools not getting the right education, the recession, _"…and still the question continues for Americans and fans everywhere; where is the rock band Fall Out Boy?"_

His head whipped up in curiosity and he turned the volume up a few bars.

"_The country of America is still left in astonishment at the sudden and unexpected disappearance of the well-known rock band Fall Out Boy, last seen at the final date of their American tour, in their hometown Chicago. The band is made up of Patrick Vaughn-Stump, aged 24, Peter Wentz, aged 29, Joseph Trohman, aged 24, and Andrew Hurley, aged 27. Police are still on the lookout and are asking for any information available. From our insider reports, the theory that the band could possibly be working on their music in a secluded recording studio has been ruled out, after all recording studios in the district areas of Chicago, Los Angeles, Florida and Washington DC were searched including their date records; there was no account of the band appearing at any studio since their last released, fifth album._

_Police are investigating whether or not the band left the country; if so then police officers in other countries will be notified to keep a search on for the infamous band. If you have any information on the whereabouts of the band Fall Out Boy, police urge you to come forward with your information; any help is required in the search for the band. The number to call for specific information on the band will be shown at the end of the News show. Fans were left in devastation at the news their favourite band have disappeared; the families and friends have refused any interviews, and have rarely been seen since the report of the disappearance of the four musicians. The famous singer, Ashlee Simpson, sister to actress and singer Jessica Simpson, has not been seen for almost a week after hearing the news her husband Peter Wentz, father to their nine-month old son Bronx Mowgli Wentz, hasn't been seen since the 24__th__ of October._

_President Barack Obama, who has met Fall Out Boy and originates from their hometown, had a few comforting words for the distressed families…"_

The camera changed to the image of the President of the United States making a speech; now uninterested, the Boss clicked the 'off' button on the remote control and sank back into a fancy, office armchair, a malevolent smile on his face. Now the news that the band was missing was out, everybody would be looking for them. The two girl spies had no option out now. As soon as someone said they had seen them, wherever they were, he would get their faster than the police and capture them again, 'disposing' of the girls. There was no other option now for anyone. He stroked his chin in thought as he concocted a plan on how to get his hands on the prize again. He had the organisation under control, when he got Fall Out Boy back, he would be rich as well; he could go wherever he wanted and start a new life, still in control of the organisation to do his whim…


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Julia placed a playing card on top of a miniscule pile of other playing cards and sat back expectantly.

"Hit me," Pete responded sharply.

Placing another card down, Pete slapped his forehead in irritation, Joe and Andy cheered, Patrick laughed and Julia shrugged as Claire glanced back from the T.V where the news played for her. They'd had no other choice but to return to the hotel so they could figure out their next steps in the plan. The Receptionist had been slightly taken aback when the six had returned but had shaken it off and greeted them warmly…again.

"Guess you lose again Pedro," she replied in an apologetic voice, collecting the cards again and shuffling them professionally. Pete grumbled something that sounded like "I'll 'Pedro' you…" and threw down a one dollar bill; instantly it disappeared and Julia returned to her shuffling as if she hadn't snatched up the money in a flash. Grumbling again he sat and waited for her to deal cards out. She looked up and flashed him a one eyebrow raised smile.

"You really want to go home poor?"

He frowned and nodded at the cards in her hand. Shrugging, she dealt out swiftly to all four of them, leaving Patrick out when he shook his head. Once done they began to search each others' expressions intently, watching out for any bluffs or changes. Here's a tip: it's useless to play cards with a qualified, expert spy of a secret organisation that teaches its agents to never give their expressions away. It's even more pointless to play with a spy that plays cards most of her free time and knows every trick in the book.

Only a few minutes passed of swapping about three cards before Julia lay down her cards, spreading them out in a perfect arc in one fluid movement.

"Royal Flush," she commented in a mock-surprise tone as the three guys grumbled to their selves and threw dirty looks at her. As they threw money at her, Claire suddenly swore; everyone looked at her in astonishment. Hearing one of the others swearing: old news. Hearing _**Claire **_swearing? Now that was interesting. She sighed and struggled to her feet.

"We have a problem," she sighed in irritation.

"How big?"

Julia abandoned the cards game and hurried over to her friend, standing just to one side so she could glance at the T.V screen as a stream of colourful videos and pictures rolled across on the news channel. In a few silent seconds the band jumped when they heard their names, Julia covered her eyes and Claire hung her head with a large sigh.

"…_Hurley, aged 27. Police are still on the lookout and are asking for any information available…"_

Claire flicked the T.V off harshly.

"Well now we're screwed! The whole population's gonna know you guys are missing and we have to do this stupid show soon!"

Everyone sighed in defeat and irritation – apart from one person who was deep in thought.

"Well…" Andy stopped and contemplated the matter. "Yeah it's a blow to our plan –"

"A '_**blow**_'!" Julia interrupted. "It's a freakin' bugger, that's what it is!"

"But think about it," he argued quickly. "Yeah people are gonna freak if they know where we are. But if we just say we were planning like a new single or something and decided to come to a different country to see if it might help – well then we advertise about our little gig and wouldn't that bring people easier? We can get the crowd we want faster, plus _He's_ not gonna do anything with security and a crowd around, he'll have to wait for his chance which should give your agents more time to get here."

There was a silence as everyone digested his theory.

"You're a genius Andy," Claire commented slowly.

"You sound surprised," he replied with an impish grin.

"Let's go to work then!" Pete whooped leaping up from his seat on the bed. The others complained as the cards went flying…

Three days exactly had passed. It was now the 1st of November – and the Boss hadn't heard anything about the band or those spies he loathed so much. At that moment he was gripping the back of his chair facing the widescreen T.V hooked up in his wall; waiting for any information that could give him a window insight as to where the six escapees were. Everything at the organisation seemed quiet so he didn't bother himself with checking it out. As long as things stayed quiet until his job was done he was content with waiting for the organisation to be placed in his hands. With no-one alive there to stop him, he was free to take over with little effort; no-one would ever notice until he began his next plan of taking control of other major secret organisations. It would be like his own organisation chain store. He smirked to himself at a sudden image of himself sitting in a second-floor office telling employees to keep working whilst other terrorists and kidnappers would 'browse' his stock of weapons, admiring his collection of trapped enemies, stuck behind a cage like animals in a zoo; the Head of the organisation would unfortunately not be there, as of course as far as he was concerned, that old fool had a bullet in the head and would never be seen again. But perhaps he would spare the spies mercy and stick them behind an iron cage. See how they would take that blow. If he was kind enough he could throw the band in there too.

As he was daydreaming to himself he laughed softly under his breath. There was a nervous knock at the door before one of his dim-witted assistants entered; he shook and the faint rustling of paper sounded to the Boss. Bemused, he turned and stared at the trembling white paper in the henchman's right hand. Sceptic, he reached out and snatched it away from him before the intimidated bodyguard had a chance to open his mouth. As his eyes raked over the page, they immediately became hard as stone and his fist gripped the paper tighter – he was in danger of ripping it to shreds.

It was a page printed off a laptop, showing an email message sent to over 1000 people – an advert screamed on the page, different shades of grey, white and black where there had been different colours:

_F__A__L__L __OU__T __B__OY__!__!__!_

_C__o__m__i__n__g__t__o __a __W__y__v__e__r__n __H__a__l__l_

_n__e__a__r__ y__o__u __i__n__S__i__t__t__i__n__g__b__o__u__r__n__e__!__!__!_

Have you ever wanted to see Fall Out Boy live in concert? Well if you live in Kent, here's your chance! For one night only, those lovely lads of FOB are playing a private gig at the Wyvern Hall

in Sittingbourne, to celebrate the release of their new single! So you'd better get down here quick to celebrate the release of the single!

Bring your friends, family, pets, whoever to this night that CANNOT be missed!

It's free to get in, as long as you show up, and this magical night is on the 2nd November so get down here quick! Doors open at 6:45 and it starts at 7:oopm and goes on 'til whenever the curtain falls! Hope to see you there! And remember – you could be an American Sweetheart!

A growl sounded from somewhere, a vicious, low, deadly growl. With little surprise the Boss realized the growl was issuing from him. He crumpled the paper into a tiny, hard bullet shape and threw it against the wall. The assistant started backing up slowly; the Boss noticed his movement out the corner of his eye and rounded on him.

"Get the team together!" he roared at the cowering henchman. "Organise them as best you can and then get them the hell into some form of transport! We're going to Sittingbourne!"

He twisted round livid, whilst his bodyguard slunk out the room with gratitude…

The band paced nervously up and down in a tiny room; outside of this room was a smallish hall and stage, with a bar at the opposite end. The Wyvern Hall. The girls seemed perfectly at ease despite the fact that the last day hade passed in a blur and the gig was looming terrifyingly closer with each passing minute. The amps and drums had been set up on the stage, borrowed by Julia's guitar teacher's band. They had also been supplied by guitars and a drum kit by the guy's band as well, with a few of Claire and Julia's guitars thrown in as well. They had been practising insanely for the last day and a half whilst the girls sent out an email advertising the gig and then taking turns to pass round flyers on the high street. Instantly tickets had been bought from the girls and the small venue. People had been talking animatedly about the approaching night – including the local newspaper and T.V news reporters. Like bees or Winnie-the-Pooh to honey, they had swarmed in to get exclusive interviews with the band on the abrupt disappearance of the foursome.

Of course the girls had kept them hidden in this private room which had enough walking space between two sofas; the band sat on these settees, rocking backward and forward, Pete, Patrick and Joe ignoring the guitars in their hands and Andy staring at his drumsticks in shock as if he'd never seen such a thing before in his life. The girls exchanged a sideways glance of worry and amusement before Claire flitted off; Patrick, distracted by her departure, snapped out of his shocked trance and stared at the door she had just left through. Only a few minutes passed when she bounded back in with several bottles of drink in her hand. Passing them round, she settled back with her diet coke and toasted to her old friend and four new-found friends.

Julia absentmindedly swept a glance at the clock hanging on the wall and took a swig of her drink. She nudged Claire with her toe and bounced up.

"We need to check that everything's in place; we'll give you sometime to practise as well." She paused and nodded at Andy. "You sure you practised enough earlier?"

He nodded in response. To play it safe Andy had practised earlier and the day before when all six of them had been on the stage. Now it just left the others to practise on their guitars before the big opening of the night. Were they nervous about performing in front of a small crowd? No problem, piece of cake! Performing in front of a vulnerable crowd when there was a maniac trying to kidnap them and probably attempting to kill all six of them in the process, and they had to keep focussed on their playing? That was going to be a little tougher.

Julia darted out the room before dragging someone into the room by the arm; this new girl looked alike as Julia, with long dark red hair, big blue eyes and a nice smile. Already this smile comforted the band as the two spies prepared to step out the room. Julia threw an arm over the new girls shoulder.

"This here be my good pal Hayley, she's gonna make sure you guys don't blow anything up or something."

"Those rules don't apply with me," Hayley corrected hurriedly.

Julia stared at her, one eyebrow raised.

"Yeah…maybe it should be _**you **_guys looking after _**her**_."

Hayley smiled a goofy smile deliberately as Julia rolled her eyes.

"We'll return in a few minutes, DON'T –" The guys jumped. "Do anything stupid while we're gone, and don't lose each other for Jebus' sake!"

"We're…not…little…_**kids**_!" Pete snarled through his gritted teeth.

All three girls looked up innocently.

"I was talking to her actually," she replied, nudging Hayley.

Hayley turned with a look of fake innocence whilst taking a swing at her friend's head.

Julia and Claire departed laughing as Hayley shut the door behind her and leapt onto a sofa, quickly abandoned by Andy who kind of suspected this may happen – it happened enough times with Claire and Julia.

Hayley looked at them in curiosity with an impish grin.

"So how annoying are those two? Seriously, on a scale of one to ten?"

The guys were shocked into laughter at the straight-forward comfort of this girl. Either she didn't have a clue who they were or the seriousness of the whole plan of catching the bad guys. Or the girls had asked her not to gawk and ask questions about their career.

"Umm," Patrick began shakily, still laughing nervously, "To be honest the girls have been great. If it wasn't for them we wouldn't be here."

Hayley contemplated his answer and stared at his shoes in interest. Then her eyebrows knitted together and she looked at him sceptically.

"Are you sure you're not talking about someone else?"

The guys laughed at her denying attitude to compliments for her friends.

"Or is it just that you're scared to say anything in case they're listening secretly and they'll take you out in a matter of seconds?" she added.

"Gotta go with that second one," Pete admitted with a chuckle.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Claire came back into the room and took a deep breath in.

"You guys better get ready, we've got five minutes."

The band stared horrified at her as they realized she was right. How had the time flown so damn quickly? One minute they had been talking to Hayley who had stayed with them whilst they practised and Joe and Patrick worked on a song they would do on stage; then the two girls had returned for a few minutes with more drinks; 20 minutes later of comfortable chatting with Hayley, she had departed with a cheery wave as Claire and Julia came back, calling on the way out 'see you on stage!'; and now suddenly they were facing the most terrifying thing they could remember. Because if the girls weren't up on the stage in time, they would be toast.

"The Boss phoned earlier," she continued calmly. "He's on his way now and he's setting up a defence around the Hall and he and some others are gonna come in when they get here."

"Sounds like a plan," Pete mumbled incoherently.

Julia scrutinized his face.

"You've gone green," she commented.

He glanced at her in irritation.

"Thanks, I really needed that."

The girls sat on either sofa; Claire next to Patrick with Andy on Patrick's left side, and Julia sitting on the top of the sofa, leaning against the wall whilst Joe and Pete sat depressed on either side of her shoes.

Patrick was finding breathing hard for some strange reason – he had to keep saying to himself 'it's just an ordinary small venue, it's just an ordinary small concert, it's nothing you can't handle.' But the sudden image of the enemy kept springing into his head and he became distracted and found his chest seizing up again. As he fought to breathe like a normal person he heard someone humming a relaxing tune next to him. In confusion he glanced over at Andy who stared at the opposite wall blankly. Turning to Claire instead she stared at her shoes blankly too and hummed the tune under her breath. Patrick took a deep breath in and instantly became relaxed, waiting for the terror to drag him back under. But with the kind, soft-hearted girl next to him singing something that sounded like a lullaby he couldn't help himself slumping back into the sofa, completely at ease.

The three on the other sofa noticed but didn't crack any jokes this time; all were as tense and wound-up as the next person. Pete tapped the side of his head with his finger before tapping it on the arm of the settee, and back to his head again. Joe looked across at the guitar propped up against the other arm of the sofa and stared vacantly at the door, wondering randomly if he remembered to feed his cat before he'd been kidnapped. Julia dug her fingernails into the sofa under her knees and struggled to relax her shoulders, and wipe the petrified expression off her face. Joe clenched and unclenched his fists several times before hissing as a stabbing pain travelled through his tense hand. Claire looked up and stopped humming; Patrick's eyes fluttered open again as he wondered what had happened to his music.

"What's up?" Claire asked quietly.

"Nothing…just my hand," he mumbled with a nonchalant shrug. "Just need to relax is all."

Claire looked up at Julia who was staring at the opposite wall.

"You should get Julia to help."

Julia's head whipped up at the sound of her name; she blinked and stared round for the source of the name-calling.

"She does really good hand massages," Claire went on with a shrug almost as casual as Joe's.

Julia looked up in embarrassed horror and glared at her.

"_**Claire!**_" she hissed. "Ix-nay on the mass-ay."

Claire giggled and shrugged again.

"I'm just saying. You used to calm Bobbie down no problem – I'm sure your services are required."

Julia glared at her again baring her teeth before she sighed; she threw her hand out in front of Joe, waiting for him to accept the offer. He stared at her hand warily like it was a live grenade before reluctantly placing his hand in hers. Sighing again she avoided his eye as she got to work.

"Y'know," Pete began slyly, "Patrick's supposed to do pretty good back massages."

Patrick growled at him viciously as Claire slowly swung her head round to see if he was joking or not. Pete nodded in encouragement, a cheeky grin on his face as Patrick got ready to launch himself at his friend.

"I did it _**once**_," Patrick growled through his grinding teeth. "Because _**someone**_ was stupid enough to jump off the stage and almost broke his back."

Pete grinned again and held up his hands in a 'little ol' me?' gesture. Claire stared at Pete's shoes.

"Well you definitely learn something new every day," she responded in a surprised voice.

"Yeah, you should get Patrick to give you a massage one day." Patrick and Claire flushed bright red. "Definitely it's great to learn two people can do massages, huh Julia?" Pete smiled at the glaring Patrick.

"_**Please.**_" Julia replied with a heavy sigh, looking up from Joe's hand. "You should never interrupt a perfectionist whilst they're working!"

The others burst out laughing as she rolled her eyes and started work on Joe's left hand.

Claire shook her head with a grin before looking up at the clock with a dreaded groan. The band looked too and their faces instantly turned white. Julia dropped Joe's hand and he flexed them absentmindedly. They didn't feel so tense anymore which was definitely a good thing. The girls stood up followed slowly by the guys and approached the door; through the thick wood they could distantly make out the sound of dozens of people screaming excitedly. The door swung open creakily and as they departed it closed again with an ominous bang – like the sound of the end…

"Drive faster!" he snarled at the driver.

The driver pressed his foot harder on the accelerator and swung the wheel round as they neared a corner. Turning to face his comrades he grimaced as the sudden flash of a sign appeared in his peripheral vision: '_Welcome to Sittingbourne, the Heart of Swale, the Garden of England._' He sucked in a breath and addressed his henchmen.

"This is it! This is the day, the hour we get our hands on those goddamn spies once more! This is the day we've been waiting for – the day we get complete control."

All the henchmen cheered in the back of the cramped van as He smiled triumphantly at a prize he hadn't even won yet…

The crowd was going wild and Fall Out Boy didn't even have to plaster fake smiles on their faces – they were really happy to do something that by their standards was normal. Joe played on the left side of the stage (or his right) with Patrick in the centre and Pete to the left; Andy drummed professionally manic at the back on a raised platform. The number of fans packed into the small venue was unaccountable – all the girls knew was the tickets had been sold out in one day. it didn't exactly surprise them; there was only so much room in the Wyvern Hall. A barrier had been placed in front of the stage giving a wide berth between the stage and the jostling crowd. Along this space stood several security guards (trustworthy telling from the girls' reactions to them) and the girls themselves, one on either side of the stage. They smiled encouragingly at the band as they played their way through their arranged set; 'Thriller', 'Sugar We're Going Down', America's Suitehearts' – right now they were working their way through 'I Don't Care', spinning and jumping as they normally did. As they finished the song the crowd screamed hysterically as they waved at them.

"Okay!" Patrick called into the microphone whilst a guitar tech (a friend of the spies') sorted out his wires. "Thanks – okay guys, we're gonna do a cover of a song from a band we're good friends with. This song is dedicated to Ashlee back home –" He gestured toward Pete who smiled warmly; the girls in the crowd screamed a little louder. "And to a couple of special friends of ours – if it weren't for them we wouldn't be here."

He snuck a look down as Pete stepped back, Andy sat up straighter and Joe replaced his electric guitar with an acoustic. They nodded at each other as the crowd grew a little quieter, waiting for the song.

"This is '6 Months' from Hey Monday," Patrick said quickly into the mike.

Joe began strumming the song they'd only practised earlier whilst Patrick tapped his foot in time to the notes, before he broke into song, only just audible above the shrieking crowd.

Claire felt the colour and heat rising up in her cheeks as he glanced down at her when he thought she wasn't looking. Joe nodded his head as he remembered the chords, sneaking a look up now and then to stare at the tall girl who leant against the barrier, arms folded. The growing, affectionate smiles on the girls' faces were visible though the darkness as they played on.

At the end of the song they stood back and waited for the reaction from the crowd and the spies. The crowd went wild of course and as they smiled, Patrick and Joe glanced down for the 50th time at the awaiting spies. They stared back with broad smiles and clapped along with the crowd. The pair on stage smiled joyfully as Pete came forward again and took to his microphone.

"Alright, hope you guys liked that! And we hope you like this next one – it's 'The (Shipped) Gold Standard!"

The crowd went insane again as the band prepared for their next song…

A security guard was standing by the emergency exit when suddenly it swung open but the alarm remained silent. Shocked he whipped round to see an ageing man stride through accompanied by a huge gang that looked almost twice the size of him.

"Hey!" The guard made the mistake of stepping in front of them to block their path. "You can't go through here sorry, if you want to see the concert, you've got to round to the entrance and buy your ticket from there."

There was an uneasy silence as the guard took in the gang properly; the man in front, most likely the leader of the pack, sneered and raised an eyebrow in a disbelieving way.

"You're gonna stop us?" he questioned in a quiet, deadly voice; the security guard noticed distantly that he had a heavy American accent, but right now he was angry and slightly intimidated by the large number of men bearing down on him. it was dark next to the fire escape – so he didn't see one of the henchmen tread lightly round behind him. He just felt a sudden powerful blow to the back of his head before everything went dark and the last thing he felt was his body crashing into the floor.

Sniffing in disapproval, the large gang marched forward slightly until the stage and the crowd came into sharp focus. The crowd was pushing against the solid barrier, trying desperately to jump on stage with their beloved band. The stage stuck out quite far it seemed from where they were standing, but the singer and the guitarist were still in clear sight. Suddenly the bassist jumped across the stage to join them and the evil Boss hissed under his breath with glee. He could hear the drums clearly which meant the whole band was there, ready for the taking. Along the barrier stood security guards facing the crowd trying to calm them down slightly. And then he saw them. The ones who had been driving him insane for almost a fortnight. He should've arrived earlier so he could've taken them out faster without having to spoil the crowd's night. The two girl spies grinned up at the band and laughed as one of them did something amusing. He chuckled menacingly with them and sauntered forward to take care of the girls and the band once and for all…


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

The band had moved onto 'Sugar, We're Going Down' as soon as they had finished 'The (Shipped) Gold Standard'. They were nearing the end when Claire suddenly saw something out the corner of her eye. Something large and bulky was moving stealthily in the shadows right at the back of the stage on the left side. She squinted a little and suddenly she was terrified and livid as she realized what it was. She calmly jogged over to Julia who was instantly on red alert as soon as she saw her friend coming over. Claire nodded in answer to an unspoken question before the two walked to the right side of the stage and up a few stairs onto the stage. The band finished the song just as the girls made their way around the stage, concealed in the shadows. They panicked but instantly righted their expressions so as not to give anything away – it was absolutely vital they didn't have to get the crowd involved in their fight. Pete cleared his throat and walked up to the mike as the crowd quietened down a little.

'Is the mike supposed to be looming toward me' he wondered to himself, shaking his head to get rid of the ridiculous paranoia.

"Okay!" He realized his voice was shaky and fought to make himself calm. "Here's a song you'll know and love! In tribute to the great man himself, Michael, here's 'Beat It'!"

Every other noise around the band was instantly cut off as the deafening crowd bellowed jovially.

The two spies made their way round to the side of the stage as the band got ready to perform their next song. As they reached the opposite stairs they stopped dead as a large menacing crowd of overgrown men advanced, smirks on their faces. Claire grimaced and curled her fists as Julia bared her teeth threateningly. One distinctive face stood out from the rest of the idiots in front of them; this was the Boss of them, the first time they had ever seen him. He grinned as recognition hit them and they glared fiercer.

"Nice to meet you girls," he yelled above the cheering; the girls noticed his American drawl straight away and hated it straight away. "Shame you won't be around for much longer."

Julia snarled like a wild animal. He smirked again at her immediate reaction; he waved his hand almost lazily. And they launched forward at each other as the sound of a guitar crashed around them and reverberated off the walls.

The girls were instantly forced back onto the stage and they heard the low gasp of the crowd somewhere to the left of them. They were careful to fight around the band members. The guys almost froze before they remembered they had to keep their terror inconspicuous and hope the crowd followed their lead. Against all their beliefs the crowd seemed to click that this was all part of the song and they cheered even more wildly as the girls ducked several times out of the way of some blows that would have nearly knocked them out cold. As the henchmen advanced onto the stage Patrick started singing trying not to look around to see where Claire was.

'_Don't get distracted!_' he thought to himself desperately. He spotted Joe trying not to look back the whole time; quickly making up a sudden dance move he got Joe's attention and while his arm was extended he motioned backward for information. Joe snuck a look back at the fight and grimaced whilst sticking his thumb up. Which must mean the fight was a close one and looked very painful – but the girls were fine. Patrick nodded in gratitude and blew out his breath in relief when he had the chance.

The girls were having a few difficulties with the attacking henchmen – this bunch was smarter than their friends. Obviously their little Boss had ordered the best of them to accompany him here. The pair suddenly found their selves separated from each other facing an oncoming horde of at least 6 henchmen each.

Claire ducked another hammer blow, dropped to her hands and whapped out her foot in a powerful, bone-crunching kick to the ribs of the one who'd tried to attack her. Leaping up as he fell back against one of his colleagues she dodged neatly to the side as a fist appeared where her head had just been. She twisted the other way as the fist drew back and launched at her head once more; she gripped the arm of the attacking man, turned swiftly and twisted his arm over her shoulder. She gritted her teeth as he flew over her shoulder and collapsed onto the stage winded – how heavy were these guys? She refrained from screeching that out loud and instead jumped up and launched a series of kicks at another guy. Her feet collided with his stomach, chest, uppercut to the chin, and as she fell back down she kicked his chest once more, growling loudly with more force put into the final kick. Her kick to the head had him half-out cold but the final kick had sent him sprawling behind the drum set into the wall. He slumped to the ground as Claire panted a little. She drew in a breath automatically as a heavy foot collided with her back between her shoulder blades.

She cried out and twisted round angrily, and lashed out unthinkingly at whoever it was. Her foot hit something hard and she heard someone yelp in pain before she ducked instinctively, sensing someone was behind her. She inched backward as two guys threw punches in her direction, expertly blocked by her rock-hard arms. It was only when the sound of the crowd increase in volume did she realize they were going to force her off the stage soon; if that happened they had a better chance of getting the band once more. She gritted her teeth and surged forward – just as easily as before they forced her back a few more steps. She was about five steps from falling over the edge of the stage.

Patrick suddenly had a clear view of whether or not Claire was holding up okay; the image wasn't quite what he wanted to see. Claire just narrowly dodged a fist coming at her head and Patrick sucked in a breath before he concentrated on singing again. He hoped no-one noticed his panic. Claire forced herself forward again and the fighting trio tripped back a few steps, Claire triumphant. They were now further from the edge of the stage but Patrick still had a sideways view of what was going on between them. A few seconds before the chorus began Patrick suddenly spotted someone lurching forward at Claire's back. She had no idea; she was too involved with the others. The trio fell to the side slightly closer to Patrick. The other guy coming up behind Claire was closing the gap rapidly and Patrick had to struggle not to stumble over the words. Without thinking, Patrick curled his fist as he broke into the chorus. A millisecond of worry overtook him and a question flashed into his mind: would he be able to stop the approaching guy and save Claire or not? He glanced at Claire in the same miniscule moment and took in her panicking expression mingled with concern for his safety. He felt the rage heat his blood in an instance as he thought of all the crap he and his friends (including the girls) had had to endure. And as he bellowed the first words of the chorus into the mike, he drew back his arm slightly before rocketing it forward. His fist smashed into the guy's face, a nauseating crack was heard as the guy's nose started bleeding, his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed backward as Patrick bellowed out again '_**Beat it!**_'

He had enough time to glance back and smash his fist into one of the guys attacking Claire. His expression changed from glee that he could beat this girl to one of horror when he saw Patrick's fist, and then it became blank and vacant as he seemed to float through the air and bounced on the stage floor out cold. Patrick hurriedly returned to the mike in time to carry on singing the chorus. Behind him the last guy and Claire hesitated in shock at the sudden attack before she took advantage of his brain vacancy and delivered an uppercut to his chin. His head was thrown back and he staggered backward, wobbling dangerously on the stage precipice before snorting like a bull and charging forward. Claire crouched a little bit like a lioness about to pounce and kicked herself up into the air; she added a spin whilst she was jumping and swung out her foot, crashing into his head with careful aim. The guy dropped like a ragdoll as Claire landed on the balls of her feet gracefully. She touched Patrick's shoulder lightly in gratitude before gliding away swiftly to take out a few more idiots.

On the other side of the stage Pete had been a witness to Claire's assisted attack on the three guys. He had to keep looking down to concentrate on the bass line of the song – he could feel the adrenaline running through the room and he felt like he'd been infected with it. He shook his head in disbelief as he spotted one of the girls (it was too dark to see which one) slid to the ground and actually under the numerous legs of friend and foe before twisting to the other side and attacking this person from the back. He chuckled a little to himself and forced himself to concentrate on the song again as Patrick broke into the second verse. Suddenly across the stage through the darkness and flying henchmen he spotted one sneaking up on an unsuspecting Joe. Joe himself was gawking at the multiple fights only just getting the chords for the song right. He didn't seem to realize there was a massive, twice-the-size-of-him guy getting ready to pounce. Pete felt a horrible icy feeling run through him as he wondered where the girls were and if they would get to him in time. With a sudden dreaded realization he could see that the girls were too preoccupied to see Joe was in danger. On instinct he swung his bass guitar wire behind him and ran toward Andy on the drum stage. He bounded onto the stage and bolted past a perplexed Andy. It wasn't until he followed Pete's line of sight that he realized Joe was about to get taken hostage again. He opened his mouth in shock before closing it again – he had to concentrate on the drums, none of them could let the crowd become suspicious to the whole scene in front of them.

Pete sprinted across the small drum stage as Joe sensed someone behind him and turned his head slightly; Pete had time to hear Joe yelp in surprise before he took a deep breath and leapt off the stage. He thought he would be too late or they would be farther than he'd jumped. But to his joy he swung out his foot and kicked the guy straight in the mouth. He crashed to the ground and writhed in agony, unable to talk properly as his mouth was full of blood and broken teeth. Joe's face had gone white and Pete laughed nervously before clapping him on the shoulder and hurrying back to his position on the opposite side of the stage, whilst the crowd cheered enthusiastically thinking the whole thing had been planned.

The girls were dimly aware of someone flying off the drum stage – it had looked suspiciously like Pete – but they were kinda busy dealing with several bodyguards. They'd taken down quite a few, with Patrick and Pete's help as well. Now they were next to the drum stage with Andy looking down every so often and cringing every time one of the guys got in a lucky punch. He looked away for half a minute to sort out his drumming and when he looked back he nearly jumped and let go of the drum sticks. Julia and Claire had been backed right against the stage and were surrounded by henchmen. They attacked viciously while Andy watched on helpless. The girls seemed to enjoy the challenge though and fought back just as rough; Andy blinked as he saw Julia actually _**bite **_one of them!

The girls were taking them down by the number when suddenly the largest one out of the lot of them it seemed, bore down on them and swung a right-hook round. It caught Julia in the side of the mouth and she fell to her side. Claire blocked another right-hook but he quickly swung his left fist into her stomach. She clutched her middle and fell to the floor winded badly as he leered at them, a few of his fellow cronies advancing to help. Just like Pete, Andy didn't think twice about his next move. All he knew was that he had swung round on his drum stool and lashed out with his foot. The guy about to take care of the girls looked up in that fleeting second before Andy's heavy shoe crunched into his face and his looks (if any) would be marred for life. He staggered back stunned before growling deeply in his throat, sounding like a plane taking off.

"_**KEEP PLAYING!**_" two voices bellowed simultaneously. The girls' dark heads whipped back up and glared at Andy; he slapped his head and quickly returned to the drums, spinning his stick rock star style. The crowd wondered momentarily where the drum beat had gone when suddenly it was back on as Joe broke into the solo for 'Beat It' which he'd been practising crazily earlier. The crowd went wild once more at their adored band and continued dancing while the girls took out a few more henchmen.

As the large guy had been sent sprawling back the girls had leapt back up and pummelled him fast as lightening; he'd still been a little stunned and was surprised to see the girls leap up so quickly. Only a few seconds passed of kicking the crap out of him before his eyes glazed over and he tilted backward in slow mo. Julia wiped her hand across her mouth and discovered she had a bleeding lip. Nodding at each other, the girls had split up again yelling something to Andy that he couldn't hear – from what he could make out it sounded something like 'Thanks for skating bus!'

Julia skidded to an abrupt halt as a fist came out in front of her, narrowly avoiding her by centimetres. Grabbing the anonymous arm she twisted round and sent the guy flying the way he'd just come. Blocking another attack she spotted Joe looking at her in terror, not seeming to pay attention to the guitar in his hands. He played aimlessly the same chord over and over again. Ducking slightly, she locked her hands together, drew them back slightly and forced them out again, smashing the guy in the chest with a powerful two-hand punch. She looked back at Joe in slight hysteria and gestured wildly at the guitar before someone came at her again. Joe blinked and shook his head coming out of his vacant trance. Realizing what he was doing and that Pete kept glancing at him he struck the right chords again whilst he heard someone go crashing off the stage behind him.

Julia delivered a right-jab, left-hook and an upper-cut in a combined move and sent this last foe crashing to the ground before drawing in a deep breath. She opened her eyes and rapidly took in a looming shadow behind her. Whipping round she crouched and stuck out her foot into the next opponent's gut. He cursed in a heavy American drawl and she stood up so fast she staggered slightly with head-rush. The Evil Boss ground his teeth and strode forward again; Julia bared her teeth too and clenched her fists. Claire, slightly preoccupied with someone else, noticed out of her peripheral vision the sight of one of her best friends squaring off against the deadliest foe yet, the one who had started all this. Her breath stopped as she saw him preparing to pounce at her friend and did a spur-of-the-moment move; knocking out her current opponent, she rushed forward with extra speed and placed herself in between Julia and the Evil Boss. Julia grabbed her shoulder to pull her back but Claire shrugged her off roughly and started toward the Boss. Suddenly Julia couldn't see who was hitting who and who was getting away without any scratches. All she could think of was what would happen if her friend lost. What would she do without Claire by her side?

Claire was struggling to keep up with the Evil Boss, it was clear he'd had plenty of training when he was in their organisation and he still remembered every move he'd been taught. The corners of her mouth twitched every time she got in a punch and she heard him curse again, but she scolded herself for almost smiling. Just 'cos she got in a few lucky hits doesn't mean he's a force to be underestimated. Suddenly he growled like a ferocious bear and his fists rained down on Claire at an alarming rate; this was something they had definitely NOT been taught! Claire's eyes widened as she struggled to focus on where the fists were going when one caught her in the side of her ribs. She gasped and squeezed her eyes shut in a moment's pain; another blow to the front of her ribs doubled her over and he brought his forearm down on the top of her back with terrible force. She buckled and lay curled on the ground and a ringing came to her ears.

"No!" she yelled hoarsely

She heard Julia's hurried footsteps halt uncertainly, shuffling forward and backward as she struggled to keep the rage down. She coughed as she rose to her feet and placed her coiled fists in front of her. But it was pointless. Before she could even get them in front of her face the Evil Boss had brought his fist round to the left side of her head. She gasped again and stumbled to the side; something grabbed her arm like a vice grip and she looked up blearily to see the Evil Boss haul her back upright. He smirked and let go; she swayed slightly and prepared herself to fight again.

"It's been nice knowing you," he spat maliciously before he swung his left hand round and collided with her head again. The force sent her flying and she crashed into the stage floor knocked out, before sliding to the front of the stage.

"_**NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**_" Julia roared. She had only a millisecond of normal vision of one of her best friends lying motionless on the ground before her vision clouded over a vivid red and everything was suddenly lost. She snarled terrifyingly, the most frightening thing anyone of them had ever heard; the Evil Boss's face for a split-second showed his fear as he stared back at the enraged, uncontrollable spy. She snarled again before she launched herself straight through the air and smashed into the Evil Boss like a rock, pinning him to the ground as they began punching each other. Whilst they fought, the two growled so ferociously at each other, the hairs on the back of Joe's neck stood up and it sent a chill through Andy. Even the audience seemed taken aback. It was only acting, was it meant to be so vivid? Patrick had stopped singing altogether and Pete hurriedly took over for him just missing a beat in the chorus, his voice shaking slightly with fear for Claire and fury at the Evil Boss. Patrick fell to his knees and twisted her round to face him; he twisted into a strange sitting position and pulled her upright, placing her head delicately on his knees. He suddenly couldn't see, everything had gone blurry, but he sniffed and wiped his eyes fiercely, annoyed at himself so much. Claire had a large cut on her cheek from being hit and a scary purple bruise was already forming.

Julia was still fighting with the Evil Boss and it was no longer a 'civilised' fight; to them this was all-out war. This fight right now meant nothing else but revenge. The Evil Boss rolled Julia onto her back and smashed his fist into her jaw. Her cheek split open but she didn't even notice the blood already trickling down her cheek; she remembered the image of Claire lying broken on the edge of the stage, and she roared again, sliding out from underneath him, forcing her knees up and kicking out at his chest with both feet. He flew away from her and leapt back up at the same moment she leant backward slightly just underneath her shoulders, threw her hands beside her head, brought her knees up to her chest and kicked herself into a standing position. They crashed into each other again but remained upright.

The song was coming to an end; the fight had been quite quick to Patrick's distant surprise. He stared round the stage, taking in the littered bodies strewn across the hard stage, the distant fighting pair and the loud snarling issuing from them, his band mates standing on different parts looking on helplessly. To him it just seemed like an alien world as he stared back down at the unconscious Claire and absentmindedly stroked her cheek with his thumb. Suddenly she frowned in her unconscious state and wriggled slightly. Patrick sighed and even managed to laugh in relief. Her hand twitched and he clutched it tightly, as if he'd never let go, before propping her more upright. Her eyelids fluttered open but her vision was still blurred. Patrick bent his head and rested his cheek on top of her head and sighed again.

"Wha-…"

Patrick smiled and looked down at her as she suddenly realized why she was a little slanted and Patrick was so close.

"Oh okay," she mumbled unclearly. Patrick frowned a little, still the same affectionate smile on his face. "Now I get it…"

He chuckled softly again and kissed the top of her head unthinkingly. The audience gabbled amongst their selves quickly: who was _**she?**_ The couple didn't bother noticing the bemused crowd or the group of girls wearing t-shirts with 'Patrick' in a love heart who suddenly glared at them, especially Claire; Claire looked up as Patrick looked down and they smiled at each other. For the first time without blushing.

All the time this had been going on Julia and the Evil Boss had still been fighting, not seeming to tire at all. Distantly Julia had heard Pete still singing the last chorus, reaching the final few lines. On an impulse, Julia glanced over at Claire to see how she was doing; she could just make out through the crimson still in her vision, the sight of Patrick cradling Claire whilst her friend moved slightly; she had woken up. Julia's vision came back to her as she sighed with relief. She dimly pointed out to herself that the stage was a lot darker when it wasn't coloured red when something rock-hard smashed into her already bleeding jaw. Her lip began bleeding worse as she fell to the ground, cursing herself silently for letting her guard down. She twisted onto her back and prepared to jump up again when suddenly she couldn't breathe; she gasped for breath and strained to lift the heavy foot off her throat as her killer-to-be glared down at her with a psychotic smile playing on his lips.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this day," he yelled at her above the noise. She struggled and growled at him. His foot pressed tighter on her throat. "Finally, I can have everything I've ever wanted!"

Joe looked behind him and nearly stopped playing again when he saw Julia pinned to the ground and struggling for air. He surged forward to her not caring about anything else. And then someone yelled something from the crowd that gave him a sudden idea.

The Evil Boss's foot forced down on Julia's throat and she felt the blood rushing to her head as the room dimmed slightly.

"Any last words?" his voice sounded, echoing strangely for some reason. Julia forced her eyes open and looked round at her friend Claire who was still in Patrick's arms; she looked down with a smile that turned into an expression of horror as she saw her friend. Andy was rising slowly off his stool preparing himself to run and help the girl, whilst Pete jigged about like he wanted to stop singing and run to get the guy off her. Where was the one she was looking for? She blinked and used some of her strength to bring her vision back; a shadow came closer and she smiled in relief that she'd found him. Her smile widened and she chuckled as she heard someone's muffled yell from the crowd. '_**Trohmania!**_'

She grinned up at the Evil Boss.

"Hope you like guitars," she replied in a raspy voice.

Joe obeyed the order of the 'Trohmania' and swung round with his guitar; the Evil Boss had enough time to see Joe coming at him with a guitar and something moving at the side of the stage, before the impact of the fretboard on Joe's guitar collided into his stomach and chest with angry force, and he went flying backward against the drum stage. The crowd went wild; they'd still been able to see the 'Trohmania' and had appreciated the 'choreography' of hitting the guy with the guitar.

Suddenly there were more guys appearing, some with firearms and some just with their fists coiled. Instantly they bolted to the different henchmen lying on the ground, forcing their hands behind their backs and handcuffing them. The ones waking up groaned; except they seemed happy to get off this stupid job. The crowd screamed in puzzlement: what was this, an extra after the song? Pete noticed them looking and, half-way across the stage to get to the girls' sides, he hurried back to the microphone.

"Thank you, you beautiful guys and gals! You've been wonderful! We hope to see you again soon. GOODNIGHT SITTINGBOURNE!"

The crowd went insane as the curtain dropped and the whole stage scene was hidden from view.

Joe flung his guitar to the side, the song finally ended. The crowd were screaming blue-murder and he didn't care about the din or the fact there were out-cold bodies around them or this had been probably the worst week of his life. He smiled broadly as he held out a hand, accepted quickly, and hauled Julia upright. She rubbed her throat frowning and coughed a little, wincing slightly.

"Well I'm definitely gonna need a holiday after this," she joked croakily. Joe laughed and swung his arm over her shoulder. Without warning, she wrapped both arms around him and hugged him tight, her face suddenly relaxing as he hugged her back just as tightly.

"Thanks for saving my life."

"Now we're even," he joked.

"Even though I feel like I'm gonna pass out from exhaustion and pain – I am _**soooo **_very glad we took this mission!"

Joe hugged her closer to him and they started walking toward the other four, surrounded by running members of the secret organisation.

"I'm really glad too."

She snuggled closer to him and he smiled.

The Evil Boss was just coming to when someone appeared in front of him. Why were his hands behind his back? Wait, they were shackled! He whipped his head round angrily as he saw he was still on the stage and his idiot bodyguards were being taken away through the fire escape by random people, each of them handcuffed. He glared up at the person in front of him and his mouth dropped open. It had to be impossible! How could _**he**_ be here?

"No…"

"Oh yes, my old friend," came the cheery deep voice of his arch-nemesis. The Boss of the Secret Organisation he'd used to work at. Until he'd been betrayed and humiliated.

"No, you were the one who sent yourself to your disgrace and discharge from the organisation," the Boss replied sternly, instantly deciphering his livid expression.

The Evil Boss ground his teeth together when his old Boss seemed to read his mind, and tried to breathe calmly, laughing spitefully.

"I see you're still the old fool who thinks he knows everyone well because he _**cares**_," he replied with a sneer.

The Boss grinned to the Evil Boss's surprise.

"Some may call it…my Jedi mind tricks," he said nonchalantly with a grin.

The Evil Boss glared at him as three agents took him by the arm and wrestled him off the stage to the fire exit. As he passed the band of four and the two spies he wrestled with his restraints and leaned dangerously forward; Patrick and Joe pushed the girls behind them a little and faced the Evil Boss in anger.

"You'll regret this," he hissed menacingly.

"Yeah," Pete started, cocking his head to one side to think about the matter sarcastically. "That's why _**you**_ are going away for a lo-o-o-ong time and no-one's ever gonna hear from you again, and _**we're**_ going back home to our friends and families. I truly, truly regret this."

Andy laughed heartily at the Evil Boss's expression of loathing.

"I'll come back for you. You'll wish you'd never been born," he spat at them, being forced away by his three restraints.

"Yep, okay, have fun with that!" Patrick called.

"Nice knowing you!" Claire cheerfully replied from the cocoon of Patrick's arms.

"Peace out dude!" Julia yelled as he was led out the fire escape; Joe made the 'Peace' sign above her head. All six waved sarcastically at his retreating back before smiling at each other, and following the henchmen out through the exit.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

The crowd was surging out through the main entrance round the corner from where the band were; everyone of them was astonished to find dozens of police cruisers parked messily across the road, almost filling up the entire street. 'Police' (who waved to Julia and Claire inconspicuously) waved them along, announcing there was a problem in the Swallows Leisure Centre, nothing to worry about. Teens still crowded round and gabbled animatedly amongst their selves at the sight of the enormous arrest taking place. The band and the girls made their way over to where the Boss of their organisation stood. He grinned and shook hands with all six of them.

"Let me just be the first to congratulate you girls. And you guys! Apparently you knocked out a few yourselves."

"You should've seen the guy Andy kicked!" Julia interrupted. "Looked like a hippo standing up from the size and looks of him!"

Joe burst out laughing.

"Well you all did fantastic!" he went on.

Suddenly a horn blasted behind him; the band jumped a little and the girls blinked. The Boss, as ever, stayed cool and composed and swung round to see a huge bus trundling up the road, herded along by the fellow agents.

The girls seemed to suddenly stop breathing as the bus tyres screeched almost as loud as the enormous amount of fans behind them. The Boss looked back and nodded his head.

"I'm sure you don't want to go through paper work, so we'll sort that out. I want you to stop by the Medic though," he continued sternly.

The band shuffled.

"Actually we're okay, we didn't really get hurt that much," Pete answered in a quiet voice, distracted by the bus behind the Boss.

The Boss's eyebrows crossed, but one look from the band who really did look fine, made him shrug and call the Medic over. The Medic, a nice-looking guy who smiled in a friendly way, checked the band over quickly in an expert way and shrugged.

"They seem fine Boss," he commented; the band sighed.

The Boss nodded and thanked him before the Medic trotted back over to see how the henchmen were holding up.

"Well…" he stopped and shook their hands once more. "I'm sure you're desperate to get out of this country so you don't get involved in anything as stupid as our missions, huh?"

The band blinked and looked down at the tense girls.

"It hasn't been so bad," Patrick said softly, not able to look away from Claire.

The Boss raised an eyebrow but didn't push it further. Stepping to the side, he allowed three people to rush through.

"_**What…the…hell!**_" one of them hissed as soon as he was close enough.

All four guys blinked; they were pretty used to English accents now.

"You just saunter off to England, without telling _**anyone?**_" He glanced round at the arrested henchmen and the girls under two of guys' arms. "What the hell is going on here anyway!"

Pete sighed.

"Spur-of-the-moment, you know how these things are. We tried to call but the networks aren't that great when connecting to America. We just needed a few days to think of our next single and we decided to go to a small town for a little peace and quiet to think. I dunno, we maybe got too caught up in it and decided to do a venue here so that we could let the fans here celebrate first – you know how it is."

His Manager stared at him with his mouth open before he looked at Pete like he was insane.

"Well…just…just don't do that again," he responded in a calmer voice. "You scared the hell out of a lot of people back home."

Pete nodded and hung his head a little in 'shame'.

"Sorry," they all muttered.

'_Mental Note – find out if they learnt that from us_' Julia thought to herself; it looked like Claire was thinking the same thing. The three new guys made their way slowly back to the waiting bus, looking back to see if the band were following.

The girls tried to remember to breathe calmly as the guys faced them reluctantly.

"Well…" Andy stopped. "Thanks for everything. Seriously, don't know what we would've done without you girls."

"Yeah, it's been…long." The girls smiled at Pete. "But…y'know, ups and downs all the way. You girls have definitely been an 'up'."

They smiled wider and Julia high-fived him, cringing slightly when she realized too late she'd hurt her hand.

The two smiled at the remaining four and pointedly look away before walking toward the bus and their Manager. Joe and Patrick stared after them, not really seeing them, just dreading the next few moments.

They turned to look at the girls, reluctantly pulling their arms away from their sides. Nobody said anything and nobody moved. Julia fidgeted a bit out of habit – she didn't like silences. Especially awkward silences…like this.

"Um—"

"I can't belie…"

"Yeah…I guess-…"

"Mhm…it's umm…it's been…"

They all stared at each other uncomfortably. The bus horn tooted loudly again. Nobody made any movement though. Patrick sighed unhappily and looked up at Claire through his fringe. Her bottom lip trembled and she rushed forward to hug him. Joe stuck his hands in his pockets and bit his lip to stop himself going all gooey and saying something that would embarrass Julia. She stared at his shoes her eyes glazed over, as if she'd gone on 'Emotional Shutdown' – she didn't say anything when Pete called to them. Just as Joe turned to face Pete, Julia threw herself forwards into his arms. He hugged her back a little in shock; he wasn't about to leave, he was just going to ask for a few more seconds of awkward silence.

The couples separated, Patrick and Claire holding hands, before the two guys departed, walking into the gloomy darkness, glancing back the whole way to see the girls standing there forlorn. They sighed as they reached the bus and climbed aboard, the driver jumping up and down in his seat, raring to go. They tried to look out the front window as the door closed, but the windows were tinted and they couldn't see through properly. They wandered over to a sofa connected to the wall of the bus under the large window and slumped down. Andy and Pete noticed their faces and attitudes straight away and stared at them sympathetically; they smiled gratefully and returned to their empty sadness. Their Manager on the other hand bounded up and down the bus exclaiming how stupid he thought the guys were but they were going home soon which was brilliant! The band mumbled along with him, not really listening, but thinking about the past week. The Manager and their Security Guard had to quickly speak to the driver as he got ready to pull away from the road; he was reversing and trying to go down the one-way street, allowed for once by the police. Andy and Pete waited until they were at the front of the bus before talking in low voices to Patrick and Joe.

"You guys okay?"

They nodded obediently. Pete sighed.

"I'm sorry guys."

"Me too."

They stayed silent.

"I know you liked the girls, much as you denied it, but…y'know, they've got their home here and their jobs, their families…everything. The same as you guys do back in America."

"Yeah, we're not saying it wouldn't work out, you guys would've done great with them…maybe it's just a little hard for them to leave their home country. They've spent their whole lives here. Hey, for all we know, you could see them again!"

The two lifted their heads slightly at that. Pete thought hard.

"Maybe…maybe the girls would've gone with you. I dunno…or you could've stayed here…" he sighed. "Nah, they wouldn't let you. I know that for sure. They'd tell you to go back home and leave all this crazy mess behind."

When the two still didn't answer, Pete and Andy leant back with a sigh. Maybe they'd get over it – they could find new girls they loved. Patrick's head lifted a little as he suddenly thought of something. Joe looked at him and like Patrick had sent it telepathically, he suddenly understood what he was thinking, without even asking. Yeah they knew the girls would make them go back to America and leave all this crazy mess behind – but would they leave it behind too? I mean, the guys thought the girls liked them as much as they liked them. It was a little confusing, but as they thought more about it, it didn't seem like such a crazy idea. Maybe the girls would love them so much they'd go with them. Maybe they wouldn't mind leaving their jobs behind, they would visit their family whenever they wanted. The guys became a little guilty as they thought it was a pretty demanding thought. But…maybe they wouldn't mind…if they loved them enough, would they go back to America wi—

"Stop the bus!"

"Well I really, _**really**_ am impressed girls!"

The two spies forced a convincing smile on their faces as their Boss complimented them and congratulated them over and over again.

"I mean, it takes a lot to take on 25 guys, and a specially trained, once-was-an-agent prick, and I really am impressed by your work!"

The girls smiled again and cursed as their cuts stung from the antiseptics.

"Sorry," the Medic mumbled cringing.

The two had been sent straight to the Medic table as soon as the whole band was onboard the bus. They had more cuts and bruises than they remembered being inflicted but they didn't care; this wasn't the worst thing that had happened to them on their missions. Once they had been checked for anything that would need to be treated the girls jumped up from the table only half-enthusiastically and stood in front of the Boss. The black bus revved its engine and pulled into the car park of the library next to the Wyvern Hall. Claire sighed depressed whilst Julia shutdown again to avoid doing something stupid.

"I've never seen such dedicated, professional work before. You're right Claire; we do get 150% out of you."

He stopped and frowned at them, suddenly seeing the sad look etched on their faces. His face cleared as he remembered the farewells exchanged between them and the two members of the band. Now he understood why they were upset.

"Listen girls," he began softly with feeling. They tore their gaze away from the departing bus and looked at him. "I know how hard it is to get close to someone and then have to see them go. I know everyone always says you shouldn't get attached but…well, I am sorry this happened."

The girls gave him tiny, genuine smiles; suddenly they all froze and looked round.

The sound of the bus's tyres screeched to a halt and the door slammed open. Even from here, the girls could see two dark silhouettes stumble out of the bus and fall to the floor. Their hearts raced as the two figures picked their selves up and raced back toward them. The Boss smiled at the girls' happy faces and stepped back a bit as the people off the bus ran toward them. It was obvious who it was but it still shocked the girls when the light from a streetlamp illuminated their faces. They were just about to ask what was going on when Patrick and Joe reached them out of breath, grabbed them in their arms and kissed them right there and then in front of all their colleagues and the remaining few dozens of fans. Their fellow agents whooped and clapped jokily as their eyes widened in shock. Then they suddenly realized what was going on and closed their eyes, throwing their arms around the guys' necks. A few more seconds passed before the couples separated. Patrick and Joe grinned at the light-headed girls before drawing in breath. Maybe they should've caught their breath before they tried to do anything else. The girls swayed slightly off-balance.

"Screw your dreams," Julia said slowly to Claire. "I'm taking reality."

Claire laughed giddily and struggled to remain upright. Was she always this light-headed? Or was it the sudden pink air around her? Wait, that wasn't supposed to be that colour…or any colour at all. Claire shook her head feebly whilst the two guys got their breath back.

"Will…you…*gasp*…okay, hang…on…"

Julia had to stop herself from snorting with laughter whilst Claire smiled at their attempt to talk properly. Finally they sucked in a deep breath and seemed to be fine again. They reached out and clasped the girls' hands in theirs.

"Claire..." Patrick began, staring at her. She gazed back and he seemed to lose his train of thought.

"Come back to America with us," Joe exclaimed.

The girls' eyes opened wide.

"Wha-…bu-…ta-…"

"Julia, you sound like you're trying to say Warburton's," Claire mumbled jokily in a shaky voice.

"Look, we both know we haven't known you that long, but it feels like it. Like you've been our friends for years or something like that. But…" Joe bit his lip and quickly pondered on how to finish his sentence.

"This is gonna sound weird, but…I seriously think I've fallen in love with you Claire." Patrick waited for her reaction.

"I love you too Julia."

The guys glanced at each other quickly worriedly; the girls hadn't said anything yet. Julia blinked and her face became blank. Claire looked back at Patrick and suddenly swayed backwards slightly. He gripped her arms tighter and pulled her upright. Julia suddenly giggled once, but it sounded hysterical. She clapped her hand over her mouth as Joe laughed; she couldn't hide the smile on her face.

"You…you're joking aren't you?" She scrutinized his face as he smiled back.

"C'mon, I thought you two were supposed to be good at telling when someone's lying or not. Does it seriously look like I'm lying? Or Patrick?"

The girls looked at each other with broad smiles before they returned their gaze to the two guys in front of them.

"And…you seriously…wait, what was the first question?"

The guys laughed.

"Will you go to America with us?"

"If you don't, I'm staying here; I don't wanna leave you now I know you Claire," Patrick added slyly.

"_**No!**_" the girls yelled by accident.

"There is no way, not a chance…that you aren't going back to America!" Claire argued back.

"Well I dunno," Joe said with a cheeky grin. "I'm getting used to England; it's a good idea to stay here."

"Joseph Mark Trohman," Julia began in a threatening voice. "If you think that coming to a crappy place like England is gonna win me over, think again pal!"

"We can't leave you now, not with our messages of love!"

Claire seemed to struggle with her words.

"Well…then of course we're going to America with you!"

Her statement shocked her friend a little but she nodded in agreement.

"We're not leaving you! No way!"

"You're stuck now, you're not losing us so fast! We'll follow you wherever you go!"

The guys grinned like elves again; the spies ground their teeth.

"No seriously, I really like England…yeah; I think we should stay here!"

"Patrick Martin Vaughn-_**Stump**_!" Claire lurched forward and tried to push him backwards. "We are getting on that bus and going back to America; don't think you're the only ones in love here!"

Patrick stared at her in amusement and joy whilst she realized what she said. She turned scarlet.

"Well it's true…I love you too," she mumbled incoherently.

Joe and Julia looked away from them to each other; she shrugged with fake-nonchalance.

"Well…I guess…I really love you too," she said with a sigh of mock-weariness, grinning up at him.

He grinned back just as happy.

The girls had forgotten there was a street full of fans, colleagues, Pete and Andy cheering in the distance…and their Boss. Cringing, they looked over at him guiltily. The light shone on his place like he was an angel; the girls hoped he would act like one too. Staring at the two couples, he sighed and shook his head as if his answer was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You think I'm going to let my two best agents run off to some far-away country just because they're in _**love?**_"

He laughed as the guys pulled them closer and glared at him.

"I'm not evil enough to not let you go. So…whatever makes you happy makes me happy."

There was a silence as the four thought over his words quickly before it finally sunk in. When it did Julia leapt into the air with a 'WOOHOO!' with Joe catching her halfway in the jump. He laughed with her and set her back down, wrapping his arms around her in a bear hug. The second they'd realized what he meant, Patrick and Claire had hugged each other so tightly, and he'd planted a kiss on the tip of her nose. She giggled and kissed him properly. The whole street erupted in a cheer as the four thanked the Boss and skipped down the road to the waiting bus, to start their new lives…


	21. Chapter 21

**Epilogue**

And that's where the mission ends; but certainly not the story. The girls stopped off at their old homes to explain what was happening to their mums, and had said their sad farewells. They'd packed a few things (all into their magical backpacks which seemed to carry more stuff than their own weight) and the band and two retired spies had set off for airport, flying back to their new home, America. The whole way to the airport and the country, Joe and Patrick hadn't let go of their loves for one second. The girls settled in quickly and, just like their old college and friends, were an instant hit.

The minute Pete had arrived in L.A, Ashlee and Bronx had met him, so happy to see him they didn't even want to ask what he'd been thinking. It was only after the last call from their Boss forever, did the girls give him permission to explain the whole mission to Ashlee. The seven of them never spoke of the mission or the Evil Boss again.

Six months passed of Patrick and Joe getting to know the girls better; on Patrick's birthday he proposed to Claire as a present to himself, that he would be tied to her forever. A few days later Joe proposed to Julia. Of course the girls both said yes. A year later the couples married in the wedding they had never even imagined would happen. Then again they'd never imagined meeting Fall Out Boy. A few months after their wedding Claire announced she and Patrick were going to have a child. And a few months after THAT Julia announced she and Joe were going to have a child. Now the guys had pretty much everything they wanted and were absolutely ecstatic (even though the girls were a lot grumpier, surprisingly Claire the grumpiest). Claire named their first boy Martin and Julia named her first daughter Sarah. The kids grew up together as best friends and it always made Claire and Julia smile to think they'd been as close and as crazy as that. Well…they actually still were.

Six years passed and in that time Claire had twins, a girl and a boy, Peyton and Luke, and another girl the year after, Alyssa. Patrick was over the moon when he saw them for the first time, and vowed to be the best dad ever. As soon as they could walk and hold things he was already teaching them how to play guitar, piano, bass, drums and trumpet. Julia also had another baby, a boy who she and Joe called Erwin, and the same year Claire had Alyssa she had a boy named Mark. The girls spent their time looking after their kids and when they were old enough, they decided to put their own small band together with a few new friends; the couples made jokes about rivalry between Fall Out Boy and their band Vashta Nerada.

The couple were finally happy together with their families. Friends came to visit Claire and Julia and they visited their families every so often. Each time their friends visited they gawked at the boy band and continuously commented in disbelieving tones, 'seriously, how did you get so lucky?' The spies didn't hear from the organisation much after that night, but they always received a Christmas card and birthday cards (the guys got these too) with messages scrawled from every agent, including new ones who had been told about their achievements. And the Boss always sent them a message wishing them luck. Every time they looked at these messages they would smile and look at Patrick and Joe lovingly. They didn't need luck. Not when they had the very thing they wanted and loved most…

THE END


End file.
